Morales apologizes for search of Brazilian aircraft in 2011

Criado em 19/07/13 18h19 e atualizado em 22/07/13 15h45
Por Renata Giraldi Edição:s Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasilia – Last week, after it became public knowledge that in 2011 Bolivian forces had made an unauthorized search of a plane being used by Brazil’s then minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, issued an apology. The search of the plane belonging to the Brazilian Air Force (“FAB”) took place at an airport known as El Alto.

Morales declared that he had been surprised by the information about the search and ordered a “profound investigation” of what he called an “incident that has already been overcome.” According to Morales, “The level of mutual trust with the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was very high and continues with the Dilma Rousseff administration. I have a lot of respect for neighboring countries, especially Argentina and Brazil. Problems are resolved and that is what mutual trust is,” he declared.

Morales affirmed that “drastic sanctions” will be applied on those responsible for the order that resulted in the search of Amorim’s plane. “We have apologized to the people of Brazil and the government. We are sincere about that,” he said.

Officially, it is reported that the plane used by Amorim on an official trip to Bolivia, was boarded and inspected to see if it was carrying drugs. Last week, on July 16, the Brazilian Ministry of Defense, confirmed the report about the search of the Amorim plane, explaining that at the time Amorim was Brazil’s minister of Foreign Relations and that he reacted to the incident by having the Brazilian embassy in Bolivia demand an apology and an end to similar incidents.

Bolivian authorities have denied that the objective of the search was to see whether or not an opposition senator, Roger Pinto Molina, was on the plane. Pinto Molina has been in the Brazilian embassy for 13 months where he is waiting for safe conduct documents so he can leave Bolivia and take up asylum in Brazil.

Editors: Nádia Franco / Nira Foster
Translators: Fabrício Ferreira / Allen Bennett

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