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On December 27, Mexico accused the Bolivian police of blocking Spanish officials from leaving the Mexican embassy in La Paz , increasing the tension between countries over Bolivia ’s surveillance of its diplomatic facilities in the last week.
In a statement , Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said that two Spanish diplomats were about to leave the Mexican ambassador’s residence when they were told their cars had been detained some minutes away and would not be allowed to re-enter the compound.
Last week, Mexico denounced Bolivia for harassing and intimidating its diplomatic staff in a row over Mexico’s decision to grant asylum to nine people who were part of Evo Morales ’ government.
Also on Friday, Mexico’s ambassador made contact with Bolivia’s Foreign Ministry , which urged the diplomats to exit the premises and walk back to their cars, but they refused to do so without their security details, the statement added. In the end, the two diplomats were collected by a car sent by the Bolivian Foreign Ministry over an hour later, it said.
Bolivia’s Foreign Minister Karen Longaric told a news conference the Spanish diplomats were accompanied by men who had their faces covered and were trying to enter the residence surreptitiously.
As diplomatic personnel is not allowed to conceal their identities, police stopped the masked men going in, she said.
“There was an evident threat to the security of the Mexican mission,” she said, adding that she would lodge an official protest with Spain , the European Union , and the United Nations .
Later, Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would open an investigation into the incident .
On December 29, six Spanish diplomats involved the previous incident left Bolivia and Spain’s Foreign Ministry denied that the visit of the Spanish officials to Mexico’s ambassador “was to facilitate the exit of people who were granted asylum” at the Mexican residence.
On December 30, Bolivia’s interim government , led by Jeanine Añez , expelled Mexican ambassador María Teresa Mercado and two other Spanish diplomats , who had already left Bolivia a day earlier.
Jeanine Añez
said that “This group of representatives from the governments of Mexico and Spain had seriously hurt the sovereignty of the people and the constitutional government of Bolivia.”
Añez added that Bolivia is “nobody’s colony ” and asked respect for the process to recover democracy “after 14 years of dictatorship .”
After the diplomatic row and a tense week, Bolivia still refuses to remove the police officers and security personnel deployed outside the Mexican embassy and the Mexican ambassador’s residence in La Paz .
In an interview published on December 28, Karen Longaric said President Andrés Manuel López Obrador should stay out of Bolivian domestic affairs after the collapse of Evo Morales ’ socialist government.
“We simply ask Lopez Obrador’s government to stop meddling in our internal affairs and to respect Bolivian sovereignty ,” Longaric told a Spanish newspaper.
“Bolivia is not a Mexican colony ,” added Longaric, who became the acting Foreign Minister after Jeanine Añez took office when Evo Morales resigned.
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