US refuses to comment on Morales plane but admits contact with other nations over potential Snowden flights
Bolivia's president
Evo Morales at Schwechat airport, near Vienna, where his plane was
diverted. Photograph: Helmut Fohringer /AFP
The country's ambassador to the UN, Sacha Llorenti, said the enforced rerouting to Austria was an act of aggression and a violation of international law. The US admitted that it had been in contact with other nations over potential flights by Snowden.
"We will demand appropriate explanations from those countries that submitted to North American imperialism and briefly put President Morales in such a helpless situation," Llorenti told the state radio Patria Nueva. Bolivia's vice-president, Alvaro García Linera, said Morales was "kidnapped by imperialism".
South American nations accused the United States of being behind the extraordinary manoeuvring, furious at what they regarded as the humiliation of Morales. In Washington, the state department would not comment on the Morales flight but conceded that it discussed the issue of flights by Snowden with other nations.
"We have been in contact with a range of countries that had a chance of having Snowden land or travel through their country but I am not going to outline what those countries were or when this [contact] happened," said spokeswoman Jan Psaki.
The diplomatic crisis may have been set off by a remark by Morales during a television interview in Russia, where he had been attending an energy conference. Morales said that he sympathised with Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Sheremetyevo airport, and hinted that Bolivia might accept an asylum petition. "If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told RT Actualidad, the Spanish-language service of the Russian broadcaster RT.
Later that day, soon after Morales was bound for La Paz, Spain, Italy, France and Portugal refused to allow the presidential jet to fly through their airspace over suspicions that Snowden was on board, according to the Bolivian government's account.
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BBC
Snowden case: France apologises in Bolivia plane row
Bolivian protesters threw stones at the French embassy in La Paz and burned the French and European flags
France
has apologised to Bolivia for refusing to allow President Evo Morales'
jet into its airspace, blaming "conflicting information".
Bolivia accused France, Italy, Spain and Portugal of blocking the plane.It said some wrongly believed US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.
Speaking in Berlin, French President Francois Hollande said he granted permission as soon as he knew it was Mr Morales' plane.
President Morales was flying back to Bolivia from Moscow when the plane was forced to stop in Vienna.
Angry reactions The French foreign ministry issued a statement on the incident.
Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: "The foreign minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France's regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales' plane to fly over [French] territory."
Footage shows Bolivian President Evo Morales waiting inside Vienna airport, as Steve Rosenberg reports
- Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner referred to "not only the humiliation of a sister country, but of the South American continent".
- Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Twitter: "I reaffirm all our solidarity with Evo [Morales] and from Venezuela, with dignity, we will respond to this dangerous, disproportionate, and unacceptable aggression"
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