Rousseff forces minister out after Bolivian politician flees embassy
Rousseff forces minister out after Bolivian politician flees embassy
Juan Arias / Fernando Molina Rio de Janeiro / La Paz 27 AGO 2013 - 18:05 CET
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff on Monday asked Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota to resign. The decision comes hard on the heels of a diplomatic confrontation with Bolivia over the flight into Brazil of Bolivian senator Roger Pinto Molina, whom, it emerged, was aided by the Brazilian embassy in La Paz.
The national press holds that Rousseff was “irritated” to find out that her country’s diplomats had helped Molina escape to Brazil during a covert night-time operation, and asked Patriota to step down.
The incident has worsened already tense bilateral relations between both countries. Bolivia considers Pinto Molina a criminal who has already been convicted of corruption and faces 14 trials for offenses ranging from cutting down trees on his estate to causing losses worth 1.7 million dollars to the state when he was a government official. The Brazilian opposition has long supported Pinto Molina, claiming he is the victim of an attack by the Bolivian government for publicly linking high-ranking officials with the drug trade. Pinto Molina had been living at the Brazilian Embassy since May 28, 2012.
The outgoing foreign minister, who allegedly had no knowledge of the goings-on at the embassy in La Paz, will be transferred to the United Nations, where he will serve as the Brazilian representative. The current UN representative, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, will be offered the foreign portfolio instead.
More:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/08/27/inenglish/1377619310_853773.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Here's an article I just found:
Brazilian president chides diplomat in Bolivian affair
English.news.cn 2013-08-28 05:37:15
~snip~
At a press conference, Rousseff dismissed diplomat Eduardo Saboia's argument that the right-wing senator, Roger Pinto Molina, was being "politically persecuted" by the socialist administration of Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Molina had been holed up at the embassy for 15 months, in an attempt to avoid going to jail on charges of corruption.
Saboia, the embassy's charge d'affaires, defended his actions, saying Pinto's predicament was similar to Rousseff's, when she was a young activist imprisoned by Brazil's military regime.
"I chose life. I chose to protect someone, a persecuted politician, just as President Dilma (Rousseff) was persecuted," Saboia told Brazil's Globo television Monday.
"It was as if I were his jailer, as if I were at the DOI-Codi," said Soboia, referring to a notorious center for detention and torture during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.
Rousseff, however, refuted his claims.
"There is no similarity. I have been to DOI-Codi, I know what DOI-Codi is," she said, "and I can assure you DOI-Codi is as distant from the Brazilian embassy in La Paz as hell is from heaven," which risked insecurity.
More:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-08/28/c_125260603.htm
[center]
Roger Pinto Molina
Right-wing Bolivian dirtball
Eduardo Saboia
Is he a right-winger, or just stupid?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~[/center]
This, from Wikipedia, explains a lot to those of us in this forum who watched, with horror, as the massacre in Pando was reported:
Roger Pinto Molina (born 23 April 1960) is a Bolivian right-wing politician.[1][2]
Pinto was born in Santa Rosa, Beni. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1997, from the single-member constituency 67 in Pando (covering areas in the provinces Nicolás Suárez, Manuripi and General Federico Román) as a Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) candidate. His alternate was Edgar Balcázar Velasco.[1] He has also been the Prefect of Pando.[2]
As of 2002, Pinto served as Director of the Baptist Church, Technical Assistant of the Central Bank of Bolivia, president of the Cooperativa de Teléfonos, Cobija, member of the national directorate of the Telephone Cooperatives Federation (FECOTEL), president of the Electoral Court of Pando, president of the Asociación de Ganaderos, Pando, municipal council in the city of Cobija and departmental executive secretary of ADN.[1] Pinto is also a major land-owner, owning a 3,269 hectares of land in El Lago and El Atajo (both areas in the municipality of Porvenir).[2]
In 2005, Pinto was elected to the Senate as a Podemos candidate from Pando.[3] He served as the head of the Podemos faction in the Senate.[4] He was reelected to the Senate in 2009, as a candidate of Plan Progress for Bolivia – National Convergence.[5] His alternate is Linda Flor Brasilda Villalobos.[6]
Pinto was accused of involvement in the September 11, 2008 massacre in Porvenir.[7] The Bolivian government accused Pinto of having, during his tenure as prefect of Pando, sold twenty-two hectares of land to the department of Pando for the 'ridiculous' amount of US$17,515.[2]
As of 2012, he sought refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in La Paz. He was granted asylum in Brazil but has not been given safe conduct to leave Bolivia by the authorities there.[8][9][10]
Pinto left the Brazilian Embassy Friday 23 August 2013 with the help of people from the Embassy. This help was allegedly granted by the indirect influence of the Brazilian foreign minister Antonio Patriota. Patriota resigned from office because of his action 27 August 2013.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Pinto_Molina