“We’re talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped,” Bolivian ambassador to the UN Sacha Llorenti Soliz vented to reporters in Geneva, touching off yet another international skirmish facilitated by the elusive Edward Snowden. A jet carrying Bolivian president Evo Morales home from an energy conference in Moscow was suspected of harboring the fugitive and was grounded in Vienna, Austria, where it was stalled for several hours while authorities swept the aircraft for signs of Snowden.

Bolivian President Evo Morales
Credit: Business Insider

Bolivian officials were livid with the United States for supposedly directing the Austrian government to conduct the search. ”We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House,” ambassador Llorenti claimed. “By no means should a diplomatic plane with the president be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country.” Bolivia is currently drafting a complaint to be lodged with the United Nations.

Morales issued a statement from aboard his presidential plane highlighting the anger that saturated even the highest levels of the Bolivian government:

I feel this was an excuse to frighten, intimidate and punish me. More than anything, an excuse to try and silence us on the struggle against the politics of plunder, invasion and domination.

He went on to claim that his life was put in danger when his plane was intercepted and forced to land abruptly.

The Bolivian presidential airplane sits at the Vienna International Airport while authorities search for Edward Snowden, who was not onboard.
Credit: Straits Times

Llorenti now argues that Austria’s move was ‘an act of aggression’ and a ‘violation of international law.’  Other nations are now joining in the chorus of anger over America’s spying policies and heavy pursuit of Snowden, with France calling for free-trade agreements between the European Union and the United States to be delayed given tensions over recent reports (ostensibly stemming from the Snowden case) that Washington is spying on the entire EU.

Snowden is believed to still be hiding in the transit area of the Moscow airport. Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far refused to ship Snowden stateside, though as a former KGB spy, he has little sympathy for the whistleblower and is reluctant to damage ties with the US over such a man.