Official note by President Dilma Rousseff
The Brazilian government expresses its indignation and repudiation for the embarrassment imposed upon President Evo Morales by some European countries who prevented the Bolivian presidential aircraft from flying through their airspace after having authorized its traffic.
The reported motivation for this unacceptable attitude – the alleged presence of Edward Snowden on the President’s airplane -, besides being fictitious, is a grave disrespect to international Law and practices and to civilized standards of coexistence established among nations. It has led to, which is more serious, risk of life for the Bolivian President and his collaborators.
It is cause for surprise and appall that these measures by certain European governments are being taken at the same time as many of these same governments denounce the spying of its employees by the United States, going as far as to claim that these actions compromise a possible future trade agreement between that country and the European Union.
The embarrassment imposed upon President Morales reaches not only Bolivia, but the entirety of Latin America. It compromises dialogue between the two continents and possible negotiations between them. And it demands immediate explanation and respective apologies from the countries involved in this provocation.
The Brazilian government expresses its broadest solidarity towards President Evo Morales, and will submit initiatives in all multilateral instances, particularly those of our Continent, to ensure situations like this never happen again.
Dilma Rousseff
President of the Representative Republic of Brazil