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Presidential planes should be relatively free from interference, but they're not sacrosanct. For example, the US Sec'y of State warned Iraq to deny access to a
by reeses 13y ago
Presidential planes should be relatively free from interference, but they're not sacrosanct.
For example, the US Sec'y of State warned Iraq to deny access to airspace to any sovereign countries wishing to aid President Assad. In addition, several congressmen (both houses) have asked for the military destruction of the Syrian presidential plane.
Hussein, Gaddafi, Ceaușescu, etc., would have been treated similarly had they made a diplomatic attempt to fly over many countries during the times they were openly perceived as being international criminals.
I imagine this would be more than about Snowden. This is one of the first moves to show Morales that he is not in as strong a position now that Chavez is dead.
- toyg 13y ago> This is one of the first moves to show Morales that he is not in as strong a position now that Chavez is dead. If that was the real aim, it's even more misguided: there's nothing better to solidify internal support than a bit of unprovoked foreign aggression. Differently from many other Latin American rulers, Morales' (and before him Chavez's) power is directly linked to oil prices, not to perceived US benevolence.
- reeses 13y agoThe US does not have a policy of caring that much about internal support, unfortunately.
- toyg 13y agoAnd this is why Venezuela will continue to be a sticky point for them. It's not 1970 anymore, you can't think of overthrowing an elected government with the sole support of a bunch of elites, you have to be clever and divide public opinion enough to squeeze in your "preferred choice". Unless, of course, you just bomb it back to the middle ages, but in most cases that's not an option.