International Conflict

Nobody in the world is safe from the arrogance of the U.S. and the countries that are loyal to it.

On Tuesday in Europe, Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to stay for more than 13 hours in an Austrian airport waiting for authorization for his plane to return to Bolivia, due to three countries denying him passage in their airspace. The event has come close to causing an international conflict and has created a huge scandal.

When the presidential plane was returning from Moscow, where our president had participated in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, France declared that it had no authorization to fly over their airspace, a measure that was repeated by Portugal and Italy; this forced the crew to take a detour and make an emergency landing in Vienna. This situation led the government in La Paz to report a form of kidnapping, since the president and his team were literally detained against their will and prevented from returning home.

The itinerary included a stop to refuel in the Canary Islands, a Spanish territory which at that point was off-limits for the Bolivian plane. The Bolivian government then reported that Spain had declared passage and the planned landing would be allowed, provided that they would be allowed to search the plane for ex-agent Edward Snowden. Snowden has been pursued by the U.S. for reporting the existence of a communications surveillance program on a global scale, and was thought to be on board so he could be sheltered by Bolivia, thus revealing the embarrassing reason the European countries had stopped the flight.

The Bolivian report, presented before the Secretary General of the U.N. and other multi-lateral institutions, caused understandable anger among governments of the region, who immediately announced a meeting of the Union of South American Nations and a popular protest in the country. This included a protest at the door of the French embassy in La Paz and numerous protests in support of the president, as well as a few expressions that showed the pettier side of some of the opposition’s spokespeople.

Soon, without delay, it became known that what France, Spain, Portugal and Italy did was a flagrant violation of international law, given the rules of international diplomacy initiated with the Vienna Convention in 1961, which explicitly established the immunity of presidents and heads of state and the modes of transport that they use, as well as the obligation to offer them all necessary protection.

After more than 13 hours of nervous anticipation, the problem was resolved and the president was able to return to the country, following his previous itinerary. However, by then the damage was already done; even considering the apologies given by the French president, it is still clear that nobody in the world is safe from the arrogance of the U.S. and the countries that are loyal to it.