By grounding Bolivian President’s plane Europe has united South America against the US – and opened new prospects for asylum seeking Snowden, believes the international affairs analyst Pepe Escobar.
RT:Much of the blame over this diverted plane
controversy now lies with the EU, so presumably Washington must
be pretty happy about that?
Pepe Escobar: Exactly. Like the Bolivian Vice President
Alvaro Garcia Linera remarkably put it, it was an “imperial
kidnapping,” but the puppets were the most important part of the
equation in that. Don’t forget that until 24 hours before what
happened to Evo Morales, they were outraged and furious that they
were being spied upon in a base in Frankfurt and out of a NATO
headquarters in Mons outside of Belgium. Twenty fours later they
did what they did against Evo Morales, leader of a small South
American nation, a peach of a person with immense grace.
RT:Why that sudden change in sentiment?
PE: Look, we have to compare… Everybody knows now about
the famous Joe Biden phone call probably impersonating Joe Pesci
in “Goodfellas” to Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador. You saw
how Rafael Correa changed his tune radically after that. Now it
is different, because the whole thing backfired. What the
America’s tried to do with Evo Morales’ plane, what the puppets
did – France, Portugal, Spain and Italy especially – the
Austrians are more or less in the middle, there’re conflicting
version, the Austrians say that Evo Morales authorized the search
of the plane in the Bolivians say this never happened.
Now, they have united South America against the US and this
ridiculous, pathetic role of the European puppet. So this opens
for Snowden a possible alternative asylum way in South America.
It could be Venezuela, just like President Maduro told RT. It
could be Bolivia, just like President Morales told RT as well, or
it could be a consultation among the countries in UNASUR – let’s
try to find a collective solution to solve the Snowden case.
RT:Well if they were that angry, surely one of those
countries would offer pretty swift and safe passage for Snowden,
so in some ways isn’t it just an overreaction to these Latin
American countries, just an excuse to have a go at the US?
PE: No. No. No. It is not an overreaction. Look, people in
South America know one of two things about the former colonial
power – Spain. They know how arrogant the French can be and I
heard this from diplomats from all sides dealing with Europeans.
It’s usually the mission civilisatrice, the civilizing mission of
the French all the time, and they always know better. So people
are extremely sensitive, and if you do this against Bolivia, come
on, it is a small South American nation. It is a slight against
the first indigenous president in history of South America. These
things they take very, very seriously.
RT:And if it is that serious and they are talking
about taking it to the UN, will that achieve anything? Will they
get any result?
PE: They’ve already launched the complaint – but look at
the UN Secretary General that we have at the moment. Ban Ki Moon
in Iceland two days ago said that Edward Snowden was wrong at
what he did! This guy, he does not even know the charter of the
United Nations, so you cannot trust even the UN. So I would
suggest UNASUR, union of South American countries, get to act
together and solve the Snowden case for the benefit of the whole
world.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.