Peru, Venezuela in renewed war of words

AFP
LIMA
Petroleumworld.com 01 12 06

Lima and Caracas engaged in a renewed war of words Wednesday after Peru's President Alejandro Toledo accused his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez of "destabilizing Latin America."

Toledo revived last week's accusations that Chavez was interfering in Peru's internal affairs ahead of its April 9 presidential elections, and Caracas promptly responded by calling the Lima government a "huge failure."

The angry exchange came barely one week after Peru withdrew its ambassador from Venezuela to protest what it considered expressions of support by Chavez for one of the presidential hopefuls.

"Let us be clear: Hugo Chavez is president of Venezuela, he is not president of Latin America, and I believe that all his petrodollars do not give him the right to destabilize the region," Toledo said Wednesday.

His remarks came after Peruvian media quoted Chavez, a former military officer, as saying conservative presidential hopeful Lourdes Flores "is the candidate of Peru's oligarchy, and she doesn't like us soldiers."

Toledo said the comments were "unacceptable," and claimed the leftist Chavez was "committing grave errors."

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel angrily dismissed the accusations.

"The Venezuelan government does not destabilize, but rather it stabilizes the region by tackling social problems," Rangel said in a statement.

"One can see the Peruvian leader lacks good judgment, and his political opinions must be clouded by the huge failure that marks his administration," Rangel said.

Chavez had already caused a stir last week when he publicly hailed Peruvian candidate Ollanta Humala, a former officer who led a military uprising in 2000.
Flores and Humala are tied at the head of opinion polls.

Peru last week recalled its ambassador from Venezuela to protest what it called interference by Chavez, who praised Humala during a photo-opportunity in Caracas with the Peruvian candidate and Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales.

Toledo said the spat appeared to have been resolved a few days ago, but that Chavez "went back on the offensive yesterday in an excessive manner that makes little sense."

Chavez said earlier it was a coincidence that Humala showed up in Caracas the same day as Morales, but analysts believe the meeting reflected the common ideological ground shared by the three.

Critics have claimed for some time that Humala had close ties to Chavez, but the presidential candidate has repeatedly denied the Venezuelan leader funded his campaign.

AFP 01/11/06

Copyright © 2006 AFP. All rights reserved

 

 

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