Bolivia and the EU

Just after the incident with President Morales ‘ flight, at the beginning of the week, I wrote in my Portuguese blog “Vistas Largas” that the EU countries involved  - France, Portugal, Spain and Austria – had made a serious mistake. They should not have prevented the Bolivian President’s plane from flying over their air space and the Austrian Police should not have searched the aircraft, after it was forced to land in Vienna. If there was any doubt about Edward Snowden’s presence on board the right approach would have been to request for information about the passenger list and take it at face value. This is the appropriate diplomatic procedure. Everything else was a humiliation of a Head of State. It would be immediately perceived as a very wrong decision taking into account the extreme sensitivities that prevail in South America where many believe the Europeans to be just arrogant and racist.

Now, a few days into this story, people are finally recognising the mistake. But they do not want to properly apologise for it. That’s to add injury to insult.