Bolivian president's plane grounded in Europe amid rumors of Snowden aboard
updated 6:38 AM EDT, Wed July 3, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Bolivia's president takes off from Vienna after spending more than 10 hours there
- NEW: Austrian officials check the plane and say Edward Snowden was not on board
- NEW: Spain allows the Bolivian plane to make a technical stop in the Canary Islands
- The plane had to land in Austria after Portuguese, French officials wouldn't allow it
The drama unfurled when Portuguese authorities wouldn't let Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane land in Lisbon for refueling while on his way back from Russia, Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra told CNN en Español.
France, Spain and Italy also wouldn't let the plane enter their airspace, Bolivian officials said. Such restrictions would cut off any direct path from Austria to Bolivia.
"We are told that there were some unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on the plane," Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said.
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"We do not know who has invented this lie. Someone who wants to harm our country. This information that has been circulated is malicious information to harm this country."
Late Wednesday morning, Spain agreed to let Morales' plane to stop in the Canary Islands on its way home, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said.
Morales' plane took off from Vienna shortly afterward, the Austrian Interior Ministry said. But by that time, he had spent more than 10 hours in Vienna.
Austrian officials made a voluntary check of Morales' plane and confirmed that Snowden was not on board, Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said.
While in Vienna, Morales met with Austrian President Heinz Fischer and said he was "surprised by his solidarity."
"His presence means a lot. Neither Bolivia nor its president commits erroneous crimes," Morales told Bolivian state-run TV. "I am respectful of international laws, and the presence of the president strengthens me."
Outrage in Latin America
Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera described Morales as a "hostage of imperialism."
"The president has been kidnapped by imperialism, and he is being held in Europe," he said in a televised address late Tuesday night. The vice president called for workers worldwide to protest "this act of imperial arrogance."
The situation drew a swift rebuke from Ecuador's foreign minister, who told reporters he planned to call a regional meeting of the Union of South American Nations, known as UNASUR, to discuss it.
"We consider this a huge offense, and I will call for a UNASUR special summit with foreign secretaries to discuss this issue," Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said.
Cuba's Foreign Ministry also condemned the incident.
"This constitutes an unacceptable, unfounded and arbitrary act which offends all of Latin America and the Caribbean," the ministry said in a statement.
Map: Evo Morales's plane was forced to divert to Vienna en route from Moscow to Bolivia Tuesday night.
So where is Snowden?
The situation is the latest twist in what has become a global guessing game over Snowden's next steps.
Snowden has admitted leaking classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs and faces espionage charges in the United States. He has applied for asylum in 21 countries, including Bolivia.
Morales, a left-leaning president who has long criticized the United States, had been attending a conference of gas-exporting countries in Russia, where he told the Russia Today news network that he would be willing to consider asylum for Snowden.
But Bolivian officials stressed that accusations that an official aircraft would harbor Snowden were baseless.
"We cannot lie to the international community by carrying ghost passengers," Choquehuanca said.
Garcia Linera said that since the plane's landing in Austria, some European officials have said they would let the plane fly over their airspace only if investigators are allowed to search it -- a condition that the vice president called unacceptable.
"We are not going to accept blackmail or any type of conditions," he said.
Bolivian minister: U.S. behind Snowden rumor
Bolivian authorities are investigating the source of the rumors about Snowden. Saavedra, the Bolivian defense minister, told CNN en Español that he believed the U.S. was behind them.
"This is a lie, a falsehood," he said. "It was generated by the U.S. government."
Bolivia's air travel rights were violated, he said.
"It is an outrage. It is an abuse. It is a violation of the conventions and agreements of international air transportation," he said.
The original flight plan had a refueling stop scheduled in Lisbon, said Saavedra, who is traveling with Morales. Once Portuguese authorities told them they couldn't land there for "technical reasons," the crew changed course for the Canary Islands, the defense minister said.
Right before the plane was about to fly over the French border, authorities there said they couldn't enter the country's airspace, again citing "technical issues," according to Saavedra.
"The crew informed us of this situation ... and out of caution they suggested we turn back and land at the airport in Vienna, which we did," Saavedra said.
Bolivia's foreign minister told reporters that the move had put the president's life at risk.
"Portugal owes us an explanation. France owes us an explanation," Choquehuanca said.
A history of tense relations
It isn't the first time Bolivian authorities have accused U.S. officials of trying to meddle with their presidential plane.
In 2011, Morales said he was worried that U.S. authorities would plant something on his presidential plane to link him with drug trafficking when he attended a United Nations General Assembly meeting.
"I think they have to be preparing something," he told a convention of female farm workers. "So much that I'm afraid to go with our airplane to the United States."
Bolivia and the United States have had diminished relations since September 2008, when each country expelled the other's ambassador.
Morales, a strong proponent of the cultivation of coca plants -- the source of cocaine -- expelled the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration a month later. He also delivered a strong verbal criticism of the U.S. government at the United Nations General Assembly that year.
In May, Morales said he was expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development from his country for allegedly meddling and conspiring against the government.
The U.S. State Department denied the accusation, called the decision regrettable and said the ones who will be hurt by the expulsion will be ordinary Bolivians.
CNN's Antonia Mortensen, Richard Allen Greene, Stephanie Halasz, Al Goodman, Ivana Kottasova, Claudia Rebaza, Patrick Oppmann and Rafael Romo contributed to this report.
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