No hard fellings toward Spain over plane delay, says Bolivia’s Morales

Just two months after a diplomatic incident, involving Spain, in which President Evo Morales’ plane was delayed when returning home from Russia, the Bolivian leader said late Tuesday that he holds no grudges against Spanish officials.

“Indigenous people are not vengeful,” said Morales, who is an Aymara Indian, during a news conference after meeting with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid.

Morales declined to go into more details about the July 2 incident or the subsequent explanations the Bolivian government received from Madrid as to why his plane was not allowed to fly through European airspace.

The presidential plane had to make an emergency landing in Vienna after France and Italy revoked its flyover permits when reports surfaced that Morales could be carrying wanted former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on board. The former National Security Agency contractor, who is wanted by US prosecutors for leaking intelligence secrets, was at that time holed up at Moscow airport, seeking a way to find asylum in a third country. He was eventually granted asylum in Russia.

At the time, Morales said that the Spanish ambassador to Austria had tried to board his plane to search for Snowden. But on Tuesday, he said the situation had been put to rest thanks to diplomacy between the two countries and phone conversations with Rajoy, which he did not wish to explain in detail. The Bolivian leader blamed the entire incident on “external agents who tried to cause a confrontation.”

Before traveling on to Belarus, Morales also met with King Juan Carlos at Zarzuela Palace. Prime Minister Rajoy did not appear before the press after their meeting.

Bilateral issues

Talks between Rajoy and Morales focused on bilateral trade and Spanish investments in Bolivia, according to diplomatic sources. Morales said that Rajoy had told him that Bolivia was “a priority” to receive Spanish government aid.

Morales also toured Santiago Bernabéu stadium with Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez.

He was scheduled to meet with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko before traveling to Italy where he was to meet on Thursday with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and meet with Pope Francis I.