GOP FED UP, WITHDRAWS AMBASSADOR TO BOLIVIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 001131

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/03/2018
TAGS: PGOV REL PINR PE
SUBJECT: GOP FED UP, WITHDRAWS AMBASSADOR TO BOLIVIA

REF: LIMA 1012

Classified By: Amb. P Michael McKinley for reasons 1.b and d.


1. (C) Summary: The GOP on June 30th indefinitely recalled
its Ambassador to Bolivia in response to an appeal by
President Evo Morales for the Peruvian people to rise up in
protest against an imaginary US base in Peru and to support a
planned July 9 national strike. President Alan Garcia on
July 1st publicly justified this decision in blunt terms:
"As (King) Juan Carlos of Spain said, why don't you shut up,
worry about your own country and stay out of mine!" Our
Foreign Ministry contacts say that Morales's comments are
only the latest in a series of conflicts between Lima and La
Paz. Our contacts also note that some in the MFA believe
that Evo has established a pattern of criticizing the GOP
whenever he suffers a political setback at home. End
Summary.

Peru Withdraws Ambassador to Bolivia
--------------

2. (C) The GOP on June 30th recalled indefinitely its
Ambassador to Bolivia in response to an appeal by President
Evo Morales for the Peruvian people to rise up in protest
against an imaginary US base in Peru. Our Foreign Ministry
contacts tell us that the administration has tried to ignore
Morales's previous criticisms of the Garcia government, but
Morales's calls for protests inside Peru crossed a serious
red line and GOP officials are angry. The MFA's
Undersecretary for the Americas Nestor Popolizio complained
to our DCM that the Bolivians do not recognize the codes and
limits of diplomatic relations and this latest incident could
not be ignored. He added that the GOP was considering
implementing additional concrete (but unspecified) steps to
demonstrate their seriousness to the Bolivians.
Vice-Minister Gutierrez confirmed this possibility in a
conversation with the Ambassador. Defense Minister Flores
Araoz and Army General Donayre also supported the hard line
in talks with the Ambassador, with the Ambassador expressing
concerns about possibl Bolivian support for a planned July 9
general strike.

Garcia to Evo: "Why Don't you Shut Up!"
--------------

3. (C) President Alan Garcia on July 1st publicly justified
the decision to withdraw his Ambassador in blunt terms: "As
(King) Juan Carlos of Spain said, why don't you shut up,
worry about your own country and stay out of mine!"
Responding specifically to Evo's appeal for protests, Garcia
declared: "No country has the right to interfere in the
internal politics of another, and that Evo is encouraging the
July 9th strike is genuinely repulsive and should be
denounced internationally." Garcia added that Evo had based
his attacks on "gross lies and manipulation, like saying that
Peru has a United States base. Mr. Morales should come here
and say where the base is. Or even better, he should stay
out of Peruvian politics and stop dividing the Peruvian
people."

A Series of Complaints Against Bolivia
--------------

4. (C) Peru's Bolivia desk officer at the Foreign Ministry
Antonio Santivanez told poloff that Morales's comments are
only the latest in a series of conflicts between Lima and La
Paz. One of the most difficult has been Bolivia's
intransigence in negotiating trade deals at the Andean
Community (CAN; Ref A). The only reason Bolivia would have
opted into negotiations with the European Union and then
sought at every turn to block a deal was to cause problems
for Bolivia's neighbors, said Santivanez. The same applies
to Peru's implementation of its free trade agreement with the
United States and Bolivia's refusal to give Peru a waiver on
CAN intellectual property rights regulations. According to
Santivanez, everyone knows that Peru will move ahead with the
trade agreement regardless of the CAN, and no one wants to
undermine the CAN -- so why is Bolivia being intransigent?


5. (C) Santivanez also discussed a seemingly minor economic
dispute that erupted in March and almost led to the closure
to trade of the border with Bolivia. Bolivian transportation
union leaders in Copacabana, Bolivia, provoked the dispute
when they "ordered" Peruvian transport companies operating on
the route to Copacabana to stop entering Bolivian territory
and leave travelers at the border for Bolivian buses to
retreive them. When the Peruvians refused to comply, the
Bolivians hijacked the buses and refused to return them even
after negotiation between GOP and GOB officials. Lima
finally gave the GOB a 72-hour ultimatum to return the buses
and reestablish normal transport routes or the GOP would
invoke bilateral agreements and cut off border trade. The
Bolivians complied with only hours to spare. Asked if the
GOP has considered closing border trade in the current
dispute, Santivanez replied that such ultimatums work better
with micro-disputes and risk spiraling out of control when
used in macro-disputes like the current one. He added that
the MFA does not like to resort to threats and only did so in
this case because Evo does not respond to normal diplomatic
measures.

Speculating on Morales's Behavior
--------------

6. (C) Santivanez told poloff that some in the MFA believe
that Evo has established a pattern of criticizing the GOP
whenever he suffers a political setback at home. He noted
that Evo's call for protests came right before Bolivia's
Chuquisaca department elected an opposition prefect, and that
his last criticism came shortly after Beni voted for its
autonomy statutes. (Poloff responded that the USG has
certainly experienced a similar pattern.) Santivanez then
speculated that perhaps Morales coordinates his messages with
Venezuelan President Chavez and is serving as Chavez's
"attack dog" while Chavez himself temporarily and tactically
cools his rhetoric. He cited as evidence Chavez's frequent
conversations with Morales as well as a private lunch the two
held during a recent Lima summit.

Comment: GOP Seeking Common Cause with USG?
--------------

7. (C) The Bolivia desk officer admitted to poloff that some
unspecified Latin American diplomats had called to say they
thought the GOP's reaction to Morales was exaggerated. He
added that their Brazilian and Argentine contacts regularly
claim that everything in Bolivia is fine, and that the
Chileans seem to have a good relationship with Morales. Our
Foreign Ministry contacts also stressed that they share
common interests with the USG in Bolivia and hinted that they
would like to coordinate future responses to Morales.
MCKINLEY