No unauthorized people were found on board.

“We want to tell Bolivians, we want to tell the world, that President Evo Morales, our president, the president of all Bolivians, was kidnapped in Europe today,” Vice President Alvaro García Linera said late Tuesday in front of the official presidential residence in the capital, La Paz. “We want to say to the nations of the world that President Evo Morales has been abducted by imperialism and is being held in Europe.”

Early Wednesday, Morales told journalists in the Vienna airport who asked about the delay that officials were “surely consulting with their friend, and their friend must be the United States.”

Sacha Llorentty Solíz, Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in Geneva that Austria’s move was an act of aggression and a violation of international law.