by the El Reportero wire services
Evo MoralesPresident Evo Morales denounced acts of conspiracy and delivery of confidential documents to the United States by workers of Bolivia’’s foreign ministry.
In an act of possession of new deputy ministers, the president said they have evidence that institution staff violated state secrecy and gave secret information to the U.S. Embassy.
In an inauguration ceremony of new deputy ministers, the president said to have evidence that the institution staff has been violating state secrecy and giving secret information to the U.S. Embassy.
Morales said he could not understand how Foreign Ministry workers could betray their country and said that the release of documents was not free.
Colombia Rejects Nicaraguan report to UN about continental shelf
The Colombian Foreign Ministry has rejected a report presented by Nicaragua before a United Nations commission calling for the recognition of the boundaries of its continental shelf extending beyond the visible 200 mile limit in the western Caribbean.
According to a public statement from the foreign ministry published here, the Nicaraguan government is trying to get the U.N. to make a pronouncement recognizing the existence of “a supposed continental shelf platform.”
The document was presented on Monday by Nicaraguan authorities before the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), founded by United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in 1982.
“Colombia is not part of the CLCS and the CLCS has not been ratified by Colombia, therefore it does “not accept any action by the CLCS,” says the statement from the Colombian foreign ministry.
Nicaragua said yesterday that the documents presented to be reviewed by the U.N. Commission contain scientific and technical information that is required to establish the outside boundaries of its continental shelf 200 miles further out to sea.
The Nicaraguan permanent mission before the U.N. reaffirms itself as a coastal country and member of the Convention on the Law of the Sea that has enjoyed since 2000 “all its rights over the continental shelf.”
U.S. Congressman threatens Ecuador with trade retaliation
U.S. Republican Congressman Sandy Levin today threatened Ecuador with trade retaliation if that country grants asylum to former contractor of the National Security Agency Edward Snowden, who is now in Moscow, Russia.
According to Levin, a decision of this kind from the Quito authorities could prevent the passage in Congress of a bill to renew the facilities to trade with that country, and even immediately block discussion of the measure in the U.S. Congress.
The Andean Trade Preference Act, passed in 1991, expires at the end of July and the process of recovery will be analyzed through the Ways and Means Committee, which Levin chairs at the House of Representatives, and by a Senate panel for financial affairs, said today the newspaper The Hill.
A statement of the Ecuadorian Embassy in this capital recalled Wednesday that the controversy over the Snowden case was not caused by that nation, and demanded that the White House present their written arguments against the granting of asylum to the former contractor.
The deputy chief of the diplomatic mission of Ecuador, Efrain Baus, called the cessation of false, negative and counter accusations against his government by officials of the administration of President Barack Obama. Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, reiterated this week that the nation put their principles above their economic interests, defending the decision of considering the asylum application of Snowden, accused by U.S. authorities of giving secret information to the press about government spyware. (Prensa Latina contributed to this report).
