Latam leaders in Bolivia support President Morales and blast European countries

Latin American leaders gathered in Bolivia on Thursday to back President Evo Morales, fuming after some European nations temporarily refused his plane access to their airspace amid suspicions US fugitive Edward Snowden was aboard.

Morales arrived home late Wednesday after a long layover in Vienna, saying his plane was diverted there because it was barred from flying over four European nations, sparking outrage among Latin American leaders.

The Bolivian leader's plane odyssey began hours after Morales declared in Moscow that he would be willing to consider an asylum application from Snowden, who is seeking sanctuary in several Latin American nations to evade US espionage charges.

“Apologies from a country that did not let us pass over its territory are not enough” Morales said before talks with fellow leaders in the central city of Cochabamba. “Some governments apologized, saying it was an error, but this was not an error.”

Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Jose Mujica of Uruguay and Desi Bouterse of Suriname arrived for the afternoon talks while Argentina's Cristina Kirchner landed later.

”We are in Bolivia to give a hug in solidarity to our brother Evo Morales, to our dear Bolivia, but also to take decisions and show that we won't accept this sort of humiliation against any country of (Latin) America,“ Correa said before arriving.

”Imagine if this happened to a European head of state, if this had happened to the president of the United States. It probably would have been a casus belli, a case for war,“ he said. ”They think they can attack, crush, and destroy international law.“

Maduro said Europe had ”attacked the international immunity that protects a head of state.”

Correa had called for a larger summit gathering leaders of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), but the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru had yet to confirm their attendance, even though they too condemned the incident.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos voiced support for Morales but warned on Twitter against ”converting this into a diplomatic crisis between Latin America and the EU (European Union).“

Bolivian officials accused France, Portugal, Italy and Spain of denying entry to Morales's jet late Tuesday as he flew back home from Russia due to ”unfounded rumors“ Snowden was on board.

Morales has also lashed out at the United States, urging Europeans to ”free themselves from the US empire.“

The US consulate's walls in the city of Santa Cruz were sprayed with red graffiti, one reading ”Gringos Obama out.“ On late Wednesday, some 100 protesters burned flags and threw rocks at the French embassy in the Bolivian capital La Paz, smashing windows.

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, has applied for asylum in several Latin American nations while waiting in legal limbo in a Moscow airport, trying to escape US justice after leaking details of a vast US phone and Internet surveillance program.

Morales likened described his situation as a ”13-hour kidnapping.“

France since apologized for temporarily refusing entry to Morales's jet, with President Francois Hollande saying there was ”conflicting information“ about the passengers.

The Bolivian government has lodged a complaint with the United Nations and planned another to the UN Human Rights Commission.

”What was the main objective? Just to scare me? Shut me up? Intimidate me? What was the goal?” Morales said.

Russia joined Latin American leaders in condemning France, Spain and Portugal, while Venezuela's Maduro said his government would review relations with Madrid.

South America, Civilised People? - Bolivian police vandalize La Paz headquarters

Bolivian police striking over low wages turned violent as officers vandalized police intelligence headquarters in the city of La Paz. At least three people have been injured as police clashed with anti-riot forces.

­On Friday, scores of masked protesters attacked the building. They threw furniture and documents outside, setting them on fire.

The police protests are nationwide, with some 4,000 officers occupying barracks. The rest of the Friday protest appeared to be peaceful.

Police commanders did not participate in the mutiny.

The average of salary of a Bolivian police officer is roughly $195 a month. There are some 28,000 rank-and-file police officers in the country.

Jewish centre asks for arrest of Iranian terrorist-suspects if they attend Rio+20

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has requested the Brazilian government “to arrest and extradite” any Iranian officials with pending arrest warrants from Interpol because of their links with a terrorist attack in Argentina, if they arrive in Brazil for the Rio+20 conference as members of the official delegation from Teheran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be visiting Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela

The request was in a letter addressed to Brazil’s Minister of Justice Jose Eduardo Cardozo and signed by Shimon Samuels, head of the Wiesenthal International Relations and Sergio Widdler, head for Latin America and delegate before the Rio+20 summit that will take place from next June 20 to 22.

“Arrest and extradite any of the Iranians in the wanted list of Interpol for their involvement in the AMIA attack, in case they are members of President Mahmaoud Ahmadineyad delegation to Rio+20”, said the letter.

The regime of Teheran has been signalled by Argentine Justice as responsible for the planning and ordering the execution of the terrorist attack against the Jewish Mutual Organization AMIA in Buenos Aires, in 1994 that killed 85 and left hundreds injured, adds the request to Brazilian authorities.

Based on this ruling Interpol has issued arrest warrants for five Iranian officials plus three more suspects of the same nationality.

“The eight are fugitive. President Ahmadinejad has protected these individuals and rejected Argentine extradition requests”, added the two Wiesenthal officers.

The list includes ”Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (former Iranian president); Ali Fallahijan (former Intelligence minister); Ali Akbar Velayati (former Foreign Affairs minister); Mohsen Rezai (former head of the Revolutionary Guards Pasdaran)”; current Defence minister Ahmad Vahidi; Mohsen Rabbani (former Cultural affairs officer at the Iranian embassy in Buenos Aires); Ahmad Reza Asghari (former third secretary at the Iran embassy in Buenos Aires); Hadi Soleimanpour (former Ambassador in Argentina).

”The Brazilian authorities have been alerted. We call upon them to arrest the suspects and hand them over to Argentine authorities in case any of them is identified as a member of the official Iranian delegation to Rio+20” concludes the letter.

Meanwhile on Sunday hundreds of Jews, gays and rights activists jointly marched along Rio's famed Ipanema beach Sunday to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's attendance at the UN summit on sustainable development.

“We want the world to know that religious hatred harms the environment and Ahmadinejad represents hatred. Sustainable development encompasses human rights,” said Ivanir dos Santos, of the commission against religious intolerance.

However unlike previous demonstrations organized by the commission, which groups tens of thousands of people of all faiths, Muslims did not join Sunday's rally. “Muslims do not take part in demonstrations against a fellow Muslim, even if they disagree with him,” dos Santos said.

The marchers carried banners proclaiming in English “Rio does not welcome Mahmoud Ahmadinejad” and “Iranians we love you”.

With exuberant drumming by the cultural group Afro Reggae, they chanted “Ahmadinejad out of Brazil” as they paraded along Ipanema beach.

“The Iranian president's visit is an opportunity to criticize his hateful speech denying the Holocaust as well as the persecution of homosexuals and Bahais,” said Michel Gherman, head of the Hillel Jewish human rights movement.

The O Globo daily, meanwhile, reported Sunday that Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes cancelled the inauguration of a replica of the famed Persepolis columns offered by Iran, citing “delays in the works.”

The event had been scheduled for Thursday in the presence of the Iranian leader.

The Iranian president embarks this week on a tour of Latin America including stops in Brazil for the Rio+20 summit, as well as Bolivia and Venezuela, the Executive office announced in Teheran.

Ahmadinejad would stay in Brazil for two days, where he would meet world leaders on the sidelines of the summit on sustainable development, Mohammad Reza Forqani, a presidency official, told ISNA news agency.

The Iranian leader would stop in Bolivia on his way to Brazil to discuss “the development of bilateral relations” with his counterpart Evo Morales, said Forqani.

The last leg of his tour would take him to Venezuela for a “brief” stop to hold talks with President Hugo Chavez. Forqani did not provide any further details.

Argentina in Bolivia after strong OAS declaration in support for Falklands’ claim

Argentina’s Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman has a challenging and fragile mission in Bolivia: to obtain strong support from the OAS general assembly for Argentina’s claim over the Falklands/Malvinas’ sovereignty ahead of the UN decolonization meeting in New York which President Cristina Fernandez has promised to attend.

Above all Timerman must try and overcome the failure of a similar attempt at the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia when it was not possible (for Timerman and President Cristina Fernandez) to collect the solid support of all the attending presidents, stamped on an official declaration, to further advance in Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas and the president’s medium term policy on the issue.

In Colombia the position of the US, with President Barrack Obama attending, was crucial together with that of Canada and several Caribbean nations that remain loyal to the UK or are members of the Commonwealth.

In just over a week (June 14) President Cristina Fernandez will be addressing the C24 committee, first time a ruling president makes such a presentation, demanding that the UK sits at the negotiation table to dialogue over the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty as repeated declarations from the UN recommend. A fresh solid declaration of support from OAS member countries would make her message allegedly even more emphatic.

But as in Colombia the US delegation has anticipated it will remain neutral about the Falklands/Malvinas issue. The US position has not changed with respect to the Falklands: “it is an issue that should be resolved between Argentina and Britain”, that means bilateral dialogue. In Colombia President Obama, who met with his Argentine peer Cristina Fernandez said “we’re going to remain neutral; this is not something that we typically intervene in”.

“We have good relations with Argentina and Britain and we hope they are capable of continuing the dialogue on the issue”, insisted Obama in Cartagena.

This was one of the main issues (together with Cuba) that impeded at the Colombian summit the drafting of a declaration of support for Argentina or at least calling on both sides to sit down and resume negotiations on the Falklands’ sovereignty.

Cristina Kirchner is scheduled to arrive in New York with a group of Malvinas veterans and seven Malvinas Solidarity committees which were specially created this year to give her speech before the decolonization committee.

Normally Foreign ministers or country ambassadors before the UN address the C24, but on this occasion Argentina to further press the point, will be represented by President Cristina Fernandez but also with little latitude for last minute damage control since Argentina currently has no ambassador before the UN because Jorge Argüello was upgrades to ambassador in Washington.

Nevertheless, according to the Buenos Aires media, ambassador Argüello is an essential piece in this script since he organized the trip to the C24 and has scheduled a private lunch for the Argentine president with thirty first line US CEOs plus industry and finance leaders.

An interesting challenge for Timerman and Argüello if things do not work out as planned and programmed for the Argentine president.

“Malvinas for Argentina and sea for Bolivia” battle cry at next OAS assembly

Bolivian president Evo Morales announced on Monday he will request at the coming Organization of American States, OAS General Assembly to be held in Cochabamba that the issues of Malvinas Argentine sovereignty and a sea outlet for Bolivia be discussed.

“Two things, Malvinas for Argentina, and sea for Bolivia, for the debate must continue at the international community” said Morales during a meeting he held over the weekend with Argentine Vice-president Amado Boudou, some of the contents of which were released on Monday by the Bolivian government official news agency, ABI.

Next week, from June 3 to 5, OAS will be holding its annual assembly hosted by Bolivia and representatives from over thirty countries will be present, “an excellent opportunity to discuss the two issues”, anticipated President Morales.

Last week end Boudou met with Morales for a Bolivian national celebration at Cochabamba, the same city where the OAS assembly will take place, and publicly thanked La Paz for its long standing position in support of the Argentine claim over the Falklands/Malvinas, under British sovereignty.

Morales is also very much interested in addressing at the OAS summit the issue of Bolivia’s outlet to the sea, which it has been claiming for over a century and is a standing conflict with Chile.

The Bolivian leader argues that the OAS declaration approved in 1979 stating that “it is of permanent hemispheric interest to find a fair solution by which Bolivia can have sovereign and useful access to the Pacific Ocean” remains effective but undelivered.

Bolivian Foreign Affairs minister David Choquehuanca said over the weekend that the sea outlet La Paz is claiming will be one of the issues to be on the table at the general assembly. “We’re going to be there with all our strength and patriotic fervour to claim the legitimate and historic right that belongs to Bolivia”.

Morales over a year ago said he would appeal to international courts to recover the sea outlet lost at the end of the XIX century during the Pacific War in which Chile ended up with 400 kilometres of coast and 120.000 square kilometres of annexed Bolivian territory.

The announcement caused disappointment with the Chilean administration of President Sebastian Piñera that has insistently argued that there are no pending issues with Bolivia and anyway if it was the case it is “bilateral”.

Even when the 42nd general assembly motive is “Food security and sovereignty”, in previous meetings other countries have anticipated they will take advantage of such a qualified presence of representatives to address other issues of regional interest.