DEVELOPMENTS
• Icelandic lawmakers introduced a proposal in Parliament on Thursday to grant immediate citizenship to Edward Snowden. Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee, but the idea received minimal support. But to apply for asylum in Iceland, Snowden would have to reach the island nation’s soil. Granting him immediate citizenship would circumvent that issue.
• France’s top security official publicly dressed down the United States at the American ambassador’s July Fourth garden party, denouncing alleged U.S. “espionage” of France and other countries, while the European Parliament voted to open an investigation. Interior Minister Manuel Valls was a guest of honor at the fete hosted by Ambassador Charles Rivkin on Thursday. Later in the day, Valls said France had rejected an asylum request from Snowden.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Evo Morales warned Thursday that he could close the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia as South America’s leftist leaders rallied to support him after his presidential plane was rerouted amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board.
Morales again blamed Washington for pressuring European countries to refuse to allow his plane to fly through their airspace Tuesday, forcing it to land in Vienna, Austria, in what he called a violation of international law. He had been returning from a summit in Russia during which he had suggested he would be willing to consider the former National Security Agency contractor’s request for asylum.
“We do not need the embassy of the United States,” said Morales, adding that leaders of his party had asked him to take action. “We don’t need them to come here with the excuse of cooperation.”
Morales spoke as the leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Uruguay joined him in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for a special meeting to address the diplomatic row.
Latin American leaders were outraged by the incident, calling it a violation of national sovereignty and a slap in the face for a region that has suffered through humiliations by Europe and several U.S.-backed military coups.
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said he and the other leaders were offering “all of our support” to Morales following the rerouting of the plane, calling it an aggression against the Americas.
Also at the gathering was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro who protested alleged attempts by Spanish officials to search Morales’ plane.
“Who takes the decision to attack the president of a South American nation?” Maduro asked. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano “Rajoy has been abusive by trying to search Morales’ plane in Spain. He has no right to breach international law.”
Morales, long a fierce critic of U.S. policy toward Latin America, received a hero’s welcome in an airport in Bolivian capital of La Paz late Wednesday night. His return followed the dramatic, unplanned 14-hour layover in Vienna.
Bolivia’s government said France, Spain and Portugal refused to let the president’s plane through their airspace because of suspicions that Snowden was with Morales.
Ahead of the meeting, Morales had said that his ordeal was part of a plot by the U.S. to intimidate him and other Latin American leaders.
He urged European nations to “free themselves” from the United States. “The United States is using its agent (Snowden) and the president (of Bolivia) to intimidate the whole region,” he said.
France sent an apology to the Bolivian government.
Spain’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said his country did not bar Morales from landing in its territory.
Amid the tensions, the U.S. embassy in La Paz cancelled Independence Day celebrations. In the eastern city of Santa Cruz, Bolivian government sympathizers painted protest slogans on the doors of the American consulate.
It’s still unclear whether European countries did block the plane and, if so, why. French, Spanish and Portuguese officials have all said the plane was allowed to cross their territory.
The emergency stop in Austria may have been caused by a row over where the plane could refuel and whether European authorities could inspect it for signs of Snowden.
The U.S. has declined to comment on whether it was involved in any decision to close European airspace, saying only that “U.S. officials have been in touch with a broad range of countries over the course of the last 10 days” about the Snowden case.
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