Spain to probe Mexico embassy incident in Bolivia
December 28, 2019
The Spanish government is to send a team of investigators to Bolivia to establish why its diplomatic staff tried to sneak into the Mexican embassy in La Paz.
Madrid said on Saturday it would probe a complaint from Bolivia's foreign ministry who described the incident, which took place a day earlier, as a violation of its sovereignty.
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In a media briefing, Bolivian Foreign Minister Karen Longaric said senior Spanish diplomatic staff were escorted by hooded people and had acted "in a secretive and underhand manner" to enter Mexico's diplomatic residence in La Paz.
'Presumably armed'
She questioned the motive for the pair to make the visit "accompanied by people with their faces covered and presumably armed?"
It was not clear if Bolivia had derailed an attempt by Bolivian officials — who served under ousted president Evo Morales and who had sought refuge in the Mexican embassy — to leave the compound.
Spain's foreign ministry denied "categorically" that the meeting was held to "facilitate the departure of the people" who were being sheltered in those offices.
The Mexican mission has been at the center of an ongoing diplomatic row with La Paz after it took in around 20 former top officials who served under the previous government. Morales fled Bolivia last month following weeks of mass street protests and after nearly 14 years in power.
Read more: Mexican President Lopez Obrador says Bolivia's leader Morales was a 'victim of a coup'
Mexico has accused Bolivia's new interim government of "harassment and intimidation" for deploying a large contingent of police and intelligence officers outside the embassy in the wake of Morales' ouster.
'Harboring criminals'
The La Paz government, meanwhile, says Mexico has given refuge to those accused of various crimes against the state, including some former ministers.
Mexico's foreign ministry gave its version of events at its embassy on Friday. It said Spain's charge d'affaires Cristina Borreguero and Spanish consul Alvaro Fernandez had wrapped up a meeting with Mexican envoy Maria Teresa Mercado.
Read more: Bolivia's interim government appoints first US ambassador in 11 years
The pair were accompanied by the Mexican diplomat to wait for their official vehicles, but they did not turn up.
Neither Borreguero nor Fernandez were able to reach their drivers nor their security detail, a ministry statement said.
The Spanish diplomats were later told that their vehicles had been stopped from entering the compound and a Bolivian ministry car picked them up about an hour later.
Morales, meanwhile, is now in Argentina, having originally fled to Mexico after losing the army's backing last month after a disputed election in October marred by fraud.
mm/rc (AFP, EFE)