COCHABAMBA: The Latin American country does not need the United States Embassy in La Paz, Bolivian President Evo Morales has said.
Morales’ plane was diverted in Europe this week due to false rumors that US surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board. France, Spain, Portugal and Italy on Tuesday refused to allow Morales’ plane, which was flying from Moscow back to Bolivia, to cross their airspace.
“We do not need the embassy of the United States,” Morales said on Thursday while speaking in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba where the leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Uruguay gathered to show their solidarity with the Bolivian president.
Morales said that his plane was forced to land in the Austrian capital Vienna, and called it a violation of international law. He added that leaders of his party — the Movement for Socialism-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples — had asked him to take action.
“We don’t need them to come here with the excuse of cooperation,” he stated.
“My hand would not shake to close the US Embassy. We have dignity, sovereignty. Without the United States, we are better politically, democratically.”
Bolivia is one of the countries to which Snowden has applied for asylum.
The United States has asked Ecuador, Cuba, Venezuela, and Russia not to provide asylum to Snowden.
