Peru recalls ambassador to Bolivia
June 6, 2008 - PressTV.ir

Peru has withdrawn its Ambassador to Bolivia as protest to remarks made by the Bolivian President against Peruvian President Alen Garcia.

(left) Peru's flag (R) & Bolivia's flag (L)

The move is in response to comments earlier this week by President Evo Morales, who harshly criticized members of an Andean economic block, and in particular the Peruvain President, for unilaterally negotiating free trade agreements with the US.

“It is complicated to have fluent bilateral relations with a president that expresses excessive comments”, said Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde on Thursday.

"Perhaps [Morales] might not have had enough time to read the [Free Trade Agreements] between Peru and the United States or any other FTA, and he has believed in a lie that someone else told him," Belaunde suggested.

The Peruvian Foreign Minister also said comments made by Morales could later create problems in Peru's ties with Bolivia especially regarding their mutual trade agreements.

Evo Morales had accused members of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) of putting the unity of the economic bloc at risk in their direct bargaining with the US.

CAN was founded in 1969 as a trade bloc now comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Venezuela withdrew from the bloc in 2006 after Colombia and Peru signed Free Trade Agreements with the United States.