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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