EU countries to Bolivia: We did not delay, deny, cancel your flight over our territories
** Getting tired repeating myself so here's the word from the EU mouths
** This was stated at a special session of the OAS today at the UN - Organization of American States
Representatives from Italy and Spain denied they closed their airspace and France called it a "technical" error based on false information and denied that it was a "political decision."
Sebastiano Fulci, a representative from Italy, said accusations against his country were unfair and false. He said the authorization to fly over Italian territory was canceled automatically — under normal procedures — after, not before, the president's plane was on the ground in Vienna.
"Italy had absolutely nothing to do with hindering the flight of President Evo Morales," Fulci said. "It never withdrew any authorization to fly over its territory."
Jorge Hevia, a representative from Spain, said his country did not delay, deny or cancel any authorization for Morales to fly over its territory on his way home from Moscow.
"Quite the opposite. At the request of Bolivia, the authorization was broadened and included authority for a stop at the Canary Islands," Hevia said in a reference to the Spanish archipelago. "At no time did we hinder the president's travel."
http://www.wral.com/bolivia-asks-oas-to-condemn-morales-plane-row/12642989/
= new reply since forum marked as read
It seems to me he wants to appear on "Bolivians Have Talent", the new hit sensation sweeping the nation.
Maybe he'll do the "Gangnam-style" dance.
... a story this big, this consequential, needs a dramatis personae of dramatic people. So let’s offer Snowden a brief respite from the spotlight, pretend his motives are either pure or of little consequence, and instead turn our gaze toward those grandstanding politicians and activists demanding that our hero be left alone and all attention refocused on them.
After a few weeks of hypocritical outrage and bluster from Ecuador, Cuba, and every other recent recipient of Venezuelan largesse, the media gaggle has shifted to the blustering and outraged Bolivians. According to the Bolivian government, President Evo Morales’s plane, traveling from Moscow to La Paz, was diverted to Austria after rumors percolated that Snowden was on board. He wasn’t. Morales was said to have been “humiliated” by the unplanned stopover, the victim of yet another yanqui affront to Latin American sovereignty.
Indeed, the wonderful benefit of being a small, Hugo Chávez–influenced Latin American country is that employing measured language of diplomacy pays fewer dividends than unrestrained populist rage, something that one doesn’t frequently hear from the Obama administration. As Chávez well understood—having learned it from Fidel Castro—blame for any problem or self-inflicted disaster is best transferred to the malevolent agents of Washington imperialism.
As the plane drama unfolded, Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera bellowed that Morales had been “kidnapped by imperialism” in an “act of imperial arrogance.” Upon returning to a “hero’s welcome” in La Paz, Morales also blamed “North American imperialism” for the flight rerouting. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa tweeted that “either we graduated from being colonies, or we must claim our independence, sovereignty, and dignity.” Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner blamed the “vestiges of colonialism,” and live-tweeted her attempt at “diplomacy” with Austria (no grandstanding in that). Not one to be outdone, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elías Jaua called the incident “totalitarian” and “fascist.”
A bit disproportionate, sure, but a clever way of staying relevant for a group of nations suddenly bereft of their charismatic leader—and stuck with his incompetent, unpopular, and charisma-deprived successor, Nicolas Maduro. But was anyone in the media, those spouting off on Twitter, attempting to verify the Bolivian story? After hours of assured reporting on the subject, fed to the media by Morales’s allies, the picture of imperialismo estadounidense became slightly cloudy. Much of the original narrative didn’t make sense (The Atlantic parsed the available information, concluding that the “tale of the re-routed Bolivian president’s plane is falling apart”). The story was complicated by a few important details: Morales’s plane didn’t leave from the airport housing Snowden but one on the other side of Moscow. There is also the emergence of an audio recording of the Bolivian pilot telling an air-traffic controller that “we need to land because we cannot get a correct indication of the fuel indication—we need to land.”
Don't cry for me, Bolivia...or Venezuela...or Argentina!
- Pilot reports technical issues while plane is over Austria. Listen to the audio.
- Plane turns around and lands at the airport in Vienna. It did NOT circle Vienna. See the flight map.
- Austrian airport officials board plane which is standard procedure, especially when a plane makes an unscheduled stop DUE TO TECHNICAL ISSUES. They DID NOT conduct a full search of the plane.
- At no point were they looking for Snowden.
- Morales takes buddy buddy pictures with the Austrian President and they're smiling and laughing away. I got pics 
- Plane leaves for Bolivia
It's utterly amazing how people bought the bullshit hook, line and sinker. My guess is that Western European countries just wanted to ignore it and hope it will go away, but leaders of certain South American countries were flogging it to death.
Morales invented this for domestic consumption and so did other leaders. Morales is the same guy who said the US poisoned Chavez. So many people got taken for a ride. It's hilarious!!!
When he landed in Bolivia, they showered him with flowers.
This whole thing is just hilarious. 
against the whole world basically.
adelante Evooooooo!
You and I have rarely disagreed on anything at DU, but on this we see eye-to-eye. Thanks for the information you've been posting 
The KKK *not a hate group* !11!!!111
Yeah, rrrrrrrrrRRRRRRight... 
