Bolivia’s President Threatened to Close US Embassy

Local Editor

President Evo Morales threatened Thursday to close the US embassy in Bolivia after his official plane was banned from European airspace.

The warning came as four other South American leaders offered him support at a special summit on Thursday.

His plane was forced to land in Austria on Tuesday after France, Portugal, Italy and Spain apparently barred it from flying through their airspace.

The Bolivian president blamed Washington for pressuring European countries into refusing him passage.

"My hand would not shake to close the US embassy," Morales said, and noted "we have dignity, sovereignty. Without the United States, we are better politically and democratically."

His presidential jet was rerouted as he travelled from a meeting in Russia where he had suggested he would be willing to consider an asylum application from Snowden.
Edward Snowden, 4 July 2013 Edward Snowden is wanted in the US on espionage charges
Morales was joined by the presidents of Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela and Suriname at a meeting to discuss the plane dispute in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba on Thursday.
The leaders issued a statement after the meeting demanding an explanation from France, Portugal, Italy and Spain over their actions.

The US was not mentioned in the statement, but several of the leaders criticized the Americans in comments after the meeting.
"If this had happened to the president of the United States, it probably would have been grounds for war," said Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.
"They think they can attack, crush, destroy international law."
Meanwhile, France has apologized for the plane incident, blaming it on "conflicting information".

Demonstrators marched on the French embassy in La Paz on Wednesday, burning the French flag and demanding the expulsion of the ambassador to Bolivia.
At a rally before the meeting, Maduro confirmed that the US Central Intelligence Agency had ordered France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to deny access to his plane on Tuesday.
"A minister of one of these European governments personally told us by telephone that they were going to apologize because they were surprised, and that those who gave the order to aviation authorities in this country ... were the CIA," he clarified.

The US consulate's walls in the city of Santa Cruz were sprayed with red graffiti, one reading "Gringos Obama out," while some 100 protesters burned flags and threw rocks at the French embassy in La Paz late Wednesday.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team