EDITORIAL - The arrogance of power

Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, may have been a bit hyperbolic in describing his forced landing in Austria earlier this week as a "near 13-hour kidnapping".

The incident was another display of the arrogance of power, in which the voice of Europe was heard, but more likely with the hand of the United States (US) at play.

Should the latter assertion be true - which most of the world believes it to be - it was another example of the crumbling of President Obama's carefully constructed façade of respect and tolerance for all countries - whether he likes their leaders or not.

Evo Morales is among politicians of the Left, part of a group that has re-emerged in Latin America in recent years, whose inspirational leader was the late Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. The US does not particularly like Mr Morales' politics.

This week, the Bolivian president was in Russia for a conference on gas. His visit coincided with the debate over the fate of Edward Snowden, the American security analyst who disclosed the scope of America's electronic eavesdropping on its citizens and of the bugging of European Union (EU) offices in the US.

Mr Morales indicated that he was willing to consider political asylum for Mr Snowden, who, it is believed, is languishing somewhere in a Moscow airport.

On Wednesday, when Mr Morales left Russia, France, Spain and Portugal, apparently acting on pressure from the US, refused permission for his aircraft to fly into their airspace. The assumption was that Mr Snowden was on-board with Mr Morales.

The Bolivian president's jet was forced to land in Austria, where it was searched - eliciting the president's quip about being kidnapped.

Disequivalence of power

France, whose President François Hollande was outraged at America's alleged spying on the EU, has since apologised over the issue. The others have said nothing. For, all of Barack Obama's hypnotic rhetoric is a stark statement about the disequivalence of power.

We agree with the assessment by Bolivia's foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, that the action of the European countries placed President Morales at risk and ran counter to international norms. The United Nations should make it clear to the countries involved, including the United States, that their actions are intolerable.

More important, President Obama should be aware that such behaviour by the US runs the risk of diluting America's moral authority, which he cherishes so much and which his administration has worked so hard to rebuild.

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