Mexico says Spanish diplomats' cars blocked by Bolivia at La Paz embassy

[sandensea]

Mexico’s government said Bolivian police had impeded the departure of Spanish officials visiting the Mexican ambassador in La Paz on Friday, widening a dispute over Bolivia’s surveillance of its diplomatic facilities.

Two Spanish diplomats were about to leave the Mexican ambassador’s residence when they were told their cars had been detained some minutes away and would not be allowed to re-enter the compound, Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Mexico says Bolivian authorities have harassed its diplomatic staff in a row centering on the Mexican government’s decision to grant asylum to nine people, now housed in its diplomatic facilities in La Paz.

Some of them are wanted by Bolivia’s conservative dictatorship.

Interim Bolivian President Jeanine Áñez took power last month after long-serving socialist leader Evo Morales resigned in a November 10 coup, and fled to Mexico City after a presidential election that the Organization of American States said was rigged in his favor.

Morales left Mexico on December 11 and is now in Argentina. He's announced a political rally for Sunday, in which he's expected to announce the Movement To Socialism (MAS) candidate for the upcoming presidential elections.

Neither Áñez nor Morales will be on the ballot for the election, whose date has been postponed numerous times.

At: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-bolivia/mexico-says-spanish-diplomats-cars-blocked-by-bolivia-at-la-paz-embassy-idUSKBN1YV17G

Bolivian police search cars after surrounding the Mexican Embassy in La Paz, with sharpshooters positioned nearby.

Vehicles of visiting Spanish diplomats were detained by police, and some were later harassed by right-wing civilians as police stood by.

Bolivian dictator Jeanine Áñez reportedly ordered the move in retaliation for the embassy's sheltering nine former officials in the deposed Evo Morales administration.

Mexican President Andrés López Obrador has asked the International Court of Justice to mediate.

[Judi Lynn]

1. It really does figure, doesn't it, that this is the period racist fascists would make their moves

upon the progressive leaders representing the vast majority of indigenous people, African-Latin Americans, and social activists throughout the Americas, now that one of their kind, with Russia's backing has lodged his fat @** in the White House and thoroughly supports them all, just as he praises war criminals publicly.

We have seen the very same pattern happening in other countries which is unfolding now under this new half-wit rancid racist in Bolivia. They ALWAYS cling to the patterns they have seen used successfully already. Look how well Honduras is doing, and Haiti, etc., etc.

Glad to see the current news, it doesn't surprise, of course. The people know how far Bolivia came with Morales, and they are NOT going to return to being treated like trash forever by the greedy, inbred racist idiots from the flatlands who have been terrorizing them for hundreds of years. The tide is going to change, and they won't be able to hold it back. They forget they are outnumbered.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Mexican president Amlo calls on Bolivia to stop harassing diplomats

Comments further stoked diplomatic row between Mexico and Bolivia, which has descended into personal insults

David Agren
@el_reportero
Fri 27 Dec 2019 18.03 ESTLast modified on Fri 27 Dec 2019 18.05 EST

Mexico’s president has called on police in Bolivia to stop harrassing diplomats at his country’s embassy in La Paz and allow nine former officials holed up there – all allies of former leader Evo Morales – to seek asylum.

“The right to asylum has to be guaranteed,” Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at his daily press conference on Friday. “We hope they act sensibly and they don’t invade our diplomatic representation in Bolivia. Not even Pinochet did that.”

His reference to the late Chilean dictator further stoked a diplomatic row between Mexico and Bolivia, which has descended into personal insults, rallied political bases in both countries and sharpened Latin American’s left-right divide.

Amlo – as the Mexican president is known – has championed a foreign policy of non-intervention. But his government has been outspoken on Bolivia, where Morales was forced from office after being accused of rigging his re-election 20 November.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/27/amlo-mexico-bolivia-diplomats-morales