Evo Morales: "certain European countries need to liberate themselves from the North American Empire"
Morales was pelted with flowers and leis when he got off his jet.
To those of us who stayed up all night following the events as they were happening, nothing in this article or statements by President Morales, will come as a surprise.
To those desperate souls, clutching at any straw you can because Obama's very own actions may reflect badly on him, you're only making things more embarrassing and once again proving to the whole world, that yes indeed, you can still sell lies like WMD's in Iraq sarin in Syria, to a small but LOUD segment of the American people.
My translation
Jueves 4 de julio de 2013
An assault on International Rights
-- United States needs to remember that we are not a colony
-- European governments banded together in an attempt to intimidate
-- Bolivia will demand that they explain why they rescinded overflight permission into their airspace
-- The President is studying what actions to take in response to his "kidnapping"
La Paz, July 3
"Never will they intimidate us, or scare us, because we are a free and sovereign people, we're not a nation of colonies but independence" the President said tonight upon his return to Bolivia after France, Spain, Portugal and Italy denied his plane overflight rights into their respective territories, which forced him to make a 13-hour stopover in Austria.
...
It's not even comprehensible what they said, they affirmed that they were detaining me because I was transporting Mr. Edward Snowden. Before leaving Vienna, I told them "This Senor (Snowden) is not a suitcase, he's not a little fly that I can put on my plane and bring to Bolivia".
...
The President explained that in the very early morning hours, he (finally) received authorization to overfly those airspaces, first France, then Portugal, and then Italy. "But Spain wouldn't give us permission until 9 AM in the morning" he said. Their authorization came a half hour later. He then informed them that the Bolivian Foreign Ministry had just received, that night, while he was in flight from Vienna to Latin America, an extradition request for Edward Snowden.
...
Morales denied the words of Austrian Minister of the Exterior, Michael Spindelegger, who said that the Bolivian government allowed the Austrian police to search his plane.
"There was NO onboard walk-through whatsover. I would not submit, degrade myself to that" said Morales, who affirmed that the Spanish Ambassador to Vienna, Yago Pico de Coaña, TRIED to climb on board for a cup of coffee (with the intent) "to look around and check the plane".
"I could not allow (do) that. We have our dignity" I said. "I am not a criminal for (you to) take over the plane". ("Yo no soy ningún delincuente para que controle el avión".)
...
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2013/07/04/politica/002n1pol
Here is what Evo Morales had to say as soon as he stepped off his jet
Rough translation that skips things like the introduction, details of the gas deal with Russia for example.
(Paraphrase) He thanks the Bolivian people and the leaders of the region for their unity and support in face of the affront, the attempts of the (North American) Empire to intimidate.
(Paraphrase) We were coming back from Russia in a good mood, a country that has expressed so much solidarity with our people, and whose President, Vladimir Putin is investing so much in our country,we were happy from our talks because next week we'll be signing a deal with Russia's GazProm, one of the world's largest Oil & Gas companies.
Translation of the video starts here:
As we were about to cross into French airspace, our pilots informed us that our permission to enter French airspace had been withdrawn and we had to turn around and return to Russia. So we discussed what to do and decided to request an urgent emergency landing in Austria.
(Aha, so the fuel gauge indicator was just an excuse they gave to get permission to land. What he doesn't mention is that they were stuck in the air flying with no destination after that permission was withdrawn. Hint for the those who don't understand how this works. You can't just keep flying around circles in someone's airspace without a permitted path to your destination. I read somewhere that night, that they flew around for 2 hours before finally landing in Austria. I'll check that.)
I feel that it was an open provocation to the (Latin American) continent, not just to the President. The North American Empire used its agents to scare us and intimidate us. Never will they intimidate us. Never will they scare us because we are a people that has its dignity and sovereignty.
The empire and its servants think they can intimidate a president by harassing him, but this is, above all, to intimidate the people and the social movements that are fighting for liberation. We are not in the time of colonies and empires. We are in times of peoples (populations) that resist invasions to loot our natural resources".
What did I see from close up? I saw from up close how some world powers are united to continue planning policies that only kill with starvation and kill with wars, politicians who never think of the people, politicians who only think of themselves, of their small groups, they think of their monarchies and their hierarchies that don't include the people of the world. These politics, I am convinced, will end because the events of yesterday and today showed that in Bolivia, and among other people who live on this earth, there's a profound sentiment for liberation of all the peoples in this world. For this I salute not only the social movements in Bolivia, but in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Argentina and many countries that urgently mobilized to urgently protest my detention that lasted over 13 hours on the European continent.
Many thanks for the solidarity. This fight isn't for Evo, but for our people and the peoples who will never shut up, the people who will continue the fight for their liberation in face of the different threats and intimidation by the North American government.
We could not understand how we could be diverted, divert a President, an official aircraft, against international accords Bolivia has with the world, besides a presidential plane is like an embassy that travels the world. To detain it, to divert it and oblige it to make an emergency landing is a way to attack the President and the continent.
I want to say to my sisters and brothers of Bolivia, many thanks for all the solidarity. This fight isn't for Evo but for the people. The people will never shut up. The peoples will continue to fight for their liberation in face of the different threats and intimidation coming from the North American Empire.
I very much regret, and I want to say that, that certain European countries need to liberate themselves from the North American Empire. I can not understand that several countries are faithful servants (fieles sirvientes) of North American Imperialism.
.
This fight isn't just taking place in Bolivia but also on other continents, as well as by people in the United States,. It's important to look for alliances with people, with North Americans who are fighting policies that serve to dominate and humiliate the people of the world.
Thank you.......
Here are some other snippets from mainstream, respected, Latin American papers today.
In La Paz, the government condemned the European siege against Evo Morales and summoned the Ambassadors of France, Portugal and Italy.
MERCOSUR Demands Apologies from the European Governments for the Offense to Evo Morales
(article)
http://www.comunicacion.gob.bo/php/noticiaCompleta.php?control=48a1e08121cd89145c9e74d7d227cc93
Or you can go with the blue link version that he really never loved him
= new reply since forum marked as read
This whole thing was deliberate, dishonest and ugly.
03.07.2013 | 21:28 | HELMAR DUMBS UND CHRISTIAN ULTSCH (Die Presse)
Bolivian President Morales was forced to land in Vienna. NSA whistleblower Snowden was suspected to be on his jet. In a telephone conversation with the Foreign Office, the U.S. ambassador demanded they extradite him.
Here's the crucial section:
Sie landete gegen 23 Uhr. Kurz danach ging im Wiener Außenamt ein dringlicher Anruf ein. Am anderen Ende der Leitung: US-Botschafter William Eacho. Wie "Die Presse" erfuhr, behauptete er mit großer Bestimmtheit, dass Edward Snowden an Bord sei, der von den USA gesuchte Aufdecker jüngster Abhörskandale. Eacho habe auf eine diplomatische Note verwiesen, in der die USA die Auslieferung Snowdens verlangten.
Translated:
It landed about 11 pm. Shortly after that, the Vienna foreign department received a phone call. The caller was the US embassador William Echo. "Die Presse" learned that he claimed with strong firmness that Edward Snowden was onboard, the whistleblower of the recent surveillance scandals. Eacho referred to a diplomatic note requesting Snowden's extradition.
http://diepresse.com/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1426275/USA-verlangten-von-Wien-Snowdens-Auslieferung?_vl_backlink=/home/politik/aussenpolitik/1416110/index.do&direct=1416110
Thanks to Temmer for that translation
A little earlier, the Head of State, Heinz Fischer, who had come to the airport to meet his Bolivian counterpart, affirmed that "conditions have been fulfilled to continue the trip". "Passports have been verified and, contrary to rumors, Edward Snowden is not on board", declared the spokesperson for the Interior Ministry,Karl-Heinz Grundboeck. The plane was not searched. "There was no legal reason for a search", he said.
http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2013/07/03/une-rumeur-sur-snowden-provoque-une-crise-diplomatique-entre-paris-et-la-paz_3440849_3222.html
I don't know of any. The Latin American forum has good untainted foreign news but only about Latin America, and we have our fair share of people there bringing very tainted news too 
I've bookmarked several of your posts but they're getting lost in the melee too. I wish there was a cleaner way to do this too. 
"As we were about to cross into French airspace, our pilots informed us that our permission to enter French airspace had been withdrawn and we had to turn around and return to Russia."
In fact they were still in Austrian airspace and closing on the Italian border when they turned around. It could be that's when the French refused them; I should think overflight permissions can be withdrawn any time.
Morales wasn't flying the plane so he can't be expected to know what country they were over when the refusal came. There aren't nice lines drawn on the ground and big letters announcing the country below when you're flying. 
of course, I could be wrong in the way I'm looking at it. The straight line ground distance their furthest point in Austria (Spittal An De Drau) to the French airspace is 277 ground miles (if you could drive a straight line) and that little jet was booking at 478 mph. Once you've flown over Vienna, which they had, you're pretty much minutes away from French airspace. It seems to me that as they were about to cross over into French airspace, the pilots made contact with air traffic control and were told they couldn't so they informed Morales at that time so he could make a decision between returning to Russia or making a stop in Vienna. I'm sure we'll hear more about this lol.
thank you for gathering and posting on NSA here! DUseful as hell
u
Foreign aid the US does not have to give in the first place? Talk about entitled. We can withdraw all of that aid and refuse to trade with them - we are free to do that.
To the 1% -> 
I gotta give it to him: he's an operator. This is the best political theater in some time.
The picture of him in the lei is like a 1980's parody of Latin American leadership.
Too perfect!
