Bolivia's president Evo Morales
Bolivia's
President Evo Morales has said U.S. intelligence services have hacked into the
email accounts of top Bolivian officials.
"U.S.
intelligence agents have accessed the emails of our most senior authorities in
Bolivia,” Morales said in a speech on Saturday. “It was recommended to me that I
not use email, and I've followed suit and shut it down," he
said.
Morales fears
that Washington would use the information obtained from the emails to plan a
possible “invasion” of his country in the future.
Last week,
several European countries denied a flight carrying President Morales entry to
their airspace over alleged suspicion that American whistle blower Edward
Snowden was on board the plane.
The aircraft
which was flying back home from a Moscow summit was forced to land in Austria
and was searched by European authorities.
Snowden, wanted
in the U.S. for espionage charges, has been stranded in a transit area at a
Moscow airport because his passport has been revoked by the U.S. government. The
former National Security Agency contractor had planned to travel via Russia to
Latin America, where several counties have offered him
asylum.
Bolivia is the
second Latin American nation having criticized U.S. spying operations in less
than a week.
Earlier last
week, Argentina accused Washington of spying on more than a hundred Argentinean
officials. Foreign Minister Hector Timerman told the Mercosur regional summit in
Montevideo that the officials were under electronic
surveillance.
Following the
revelations by Snowden, Latin American leaders lashed out at the U.S. for its
massive espionage operations.
Bolivia,
Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua have publicly vowed to grant Snowden asylum,
defying Washington’s extradition request.
Guardian’s Glenn
Greenwald has said Snowden still has sensitive information that could become the
United States' "worst nightmare" if revealed.
No comments:
Post a Comment