MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th December, 2019) The Spanish government said Monday it had declared three Bolivian diplomats personae non gratae in a tit-for-tat response to the Andean nation.
Bolivia's interim president said earlier in the day her country would expel the Mexican ambassador, two Spanish diplomats and four Spanish police officers.
"Spain has in turn decided to declare personae non gratae three members of the Bolivian diplomatic and consular staff ... and give them 72 hours to leave Spain," the statement reads.
This comes after one of the Spanish diplomats about to be sent out allegedly tried to enter the Mexican Embassy in the Bolivian capital of La Paz to help an aide to Bolivia's deposed leader Evo Morales to escape.
The attempt is said to have been foiled by Bolivian police who did not let him and his company in. The Bolivian Foreign Ministry claimed the suspects tried to sneak onto the premises and hid their faces.
The Mexican Embassy harbors nine former Bolivian officials from Morales's defunct administration. They fled to the diplomatic mission after the Bolivian president was ousted by the military following weeks of unrest over his reelection.
