Spain Offers Apology For Bolivia/Snowden Flight Blocking Incident

It has now been about two weeks since the Bolivian jet incident occurred. To cut a long story short, Spain, France, Portugal and Italy blocked their airspace to the Bolivian Presidential Jet amid suspicions that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was onboard. As a result the jet was forced to land in Austria and officials conducted a search of the jet to see if Edward Snowden was onboard. According to El Nuevo Empresario Spain have now issued an officially apology for the incident. This comes after several Latin American nations withdrew their diplomatic ambassadors from Spain in protest.

The government of Spain officially contacted Bolivian diplomats to apologise for the incident and offer explanations as to why airspace access was denied. The reason why Spain was so important in the incident is because the presidential jet was due to land and refuel on the Spanish owned Canary Islands.

“Spain deeply regrets what happened and we’re sorry for how things happened. We presented our apologies. We consider this situation settled” said a Spanish diplomat.

This is certainly a step in the right direction for repairing the damage but Portugal, France and Italy have still yet to resolve the issue with Bolivia and Latin America. Until that happens we could see the diplomatic rift continue.

Image courtesy of AFP Photo/Patrick Domingo