In a move that is sure to rankle the United States, Bolivian President Evo Morales has declared that he will grant Edward Snowden asylum in his South American homeland. That now brings the total number of countries willing to accept the famed NSA leaker to three, after Venezuela and Nicaragua stepped up last week.

"I want to tell Europeans and Americans, [that as a] just protest, [we] now give asylum to the American, [who is being] pursued by his countrymen,” Morales said Saturday (Google Translate), speaking from the southern highlands of Bolivia.

“We are not afraid. They accused me [of harboring] the former [NSA] agent. I only knew about this based on press reports. I want the government of the United States and some European countries to know that we give asylum for humanitarian reasons for political refugees, those pursued for exposing the spying of the United States.”

Last week, Morales accused Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal of having blocked passage through the countries' airspace due to US pressure because of "unfounded" suspicions that Snowden was hiding in their aircraft. President Morales’ plane was forced to land in Austria for 13 hours after a number of European countries denied it access to their airspace while it was flying back to Bolivia from Russia, where Morales had been attending a conference.

Austria: “There was no search in the forensic sense”

Austrian President Heinz Fischer told local media in his country on Sunday that Morales’ plane was not given a “formal inspection,” but rather was looked at due to a “technical problem.”

"Someone from the airport staff sought out the aircraft or the pilot after landing to inquire about the nature of the technical problem," Fischer was quoted as saying. "The Austrian official was advised that the defect was already fixed, and saw on this occasion that the plane was empty... He did not look under the seats. There was no formal inspection, but no other people were found on board," Fischer added.

"There was no search in the forensic sense” he also said. “There was also no reason to [do a search] under international law. The plane of a president belongs to 'his territory' and cannot be searched readily."

Last week, the presidents of Argentina, Ecuador, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Bolivia met in the Andean nation to denounce Morales’ forced landing in Austria.

They signed a statement demanding a “public apology” (Google Translate) from Spain, France, Italy, and Portugal, and said they would file a formal complaint (Google Translate) with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Last Wednesday, France did apologize, writing publicly on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website that “the authorization to fly over French territory was granted as soon as the French authorities had been informed that the aircraft in question was that of President Morales. [Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius] also indicated to [Morales] that there had, of course, never been any intention of refusing President Morales’s plane access to our airspace; President Morales is always welcome in our country.”

That didn’t seem to be enough for the upset Latin American leaders.

"This constitutes an extraordinary, unfriendly and hostile act," Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said last Thursday. "The injustice suffered by President Evo Morales offends not only Bolivia, but all of our nations."

The scenic route

Of course, the new asylum offer still leaves the problem of how to get Snowden from the Moscow airport (where he’s believed to still be staying) to anywhere in Latin America. After all, the most direct (and commercial) route would put Snowden in the flight path of Estonia, Finland, Norway, Canada, and the United States itself.

Foreign Policy magazine consulted with former CIA analyst Allen Thomson to find an alternate “scenic route” for Snowden, which would surely have to be on a private plane.

"Leave Moscow," Thomson wrote. "Fly north to the Barents Sea, thence over to and through the Denmark Strait. Continue south, steering clear of Newfoundland until getting to the east of the Windward Islands. Fly through some convenient gap between islands and continue on to Caracas. Not more than 11,000 km all in all, which is within the range of a number of charter-able commercial aircraft."