Bolivia and Nicaragua have also expressed their willingness to grant NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden asylum. The offers to Snowden came after a plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was rerouted to Austria after France and Portugal barred it from their airspace over false suspicions that Snowden was on board. After hosting an emergency summit of Latin American leaders, Morales threatened to close the U.S. embassy in Bolivia.

Bolivian President Evo Morales: “If it were necessary, I would close the U.S. embassy in Bolivia. We are not in need of a U.S. embassy in Bolivia. We do not need its pretext of cooperation or diplomatic relationship. They come to conspire against us from inside and out.”