Washington Arrogantly Orders Hijacking of Evo Morales’ Plane

Stand with Bolivia Against U.S. Imperialist Piracy!

As we go to press, on July 2 the plane of Bolivian president Evo Morales  was refused permission to enter the airspace of France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, forcing it to land in Vienna, Austria to refuel. There it was held on the ground for 14 hours as officials demanded to inspect the plane. The Spanish ambassador even showed up at the airport to carry out an inspection, which was refused. These servile governments were clearly doing the dirty work for U.S. imperialism, which has been desperately trying to lay hands on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden ever since he exposed Washington’s massive surveillance of the U.S. population and espionage against its imperialist “allies.”

The U.S./NATO imperialists’ attack on the plane of the Bolivian president is a blatant act of piracy, in violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961 on diplomatic relations. It is a colonialist attack on Bolivia by U.S. president Barack Obama, who like his predecessors treats Latin America as the U.S.’ “backyard.” The mass murderer in the White House clearly believes that the Monroe Doctrine lets him humiliate and dictate to the entire hemisphere. The international working class must stand with Bolivia against this aggression and insufferable imperialist arrogance and defend any measures by the Bolivian government against U.S. and European imperialism in response to this outrage. ■