MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peruvian candidate accused of receiving Venezuelan money

Alan Garcia said Monday that his opponent in this month's Peruvian presidential runoff, ultra nationalist Ollanta Humala, is financed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, another left-leaning former Army colonel and failed coup-plotter.

Interviewed by a local radio in Lima Social-democrat and former president (1985/90) Garcia said that Humala "has a contract with Chavez" and urged Peruvian authorities to investigate "how many Venezuelan officials have entered Peru in recent times".

Garcia also pledged not to sever Peru's ties with Caracas if he wins the presidency. "We are not going to declare diplomatic war on Venezuela or the Venezuelans" he said.

Chavez on Friday said that if Garcia won the May 29 runoff, he would withdraw the Venezuelan ambassador from Lima.

Peru's ambassador to Venezuela returned to Lima Sunday on orders from Toledo, who recalled the diplomat to protest Chavez's insults to himself and Garcia and for interfering in Peruvian internal affairs.

Toledo recommended Sunday night that Chavez learn how "to rule in democracy".

The current round of exchanges began last Thursday, when Garcia described Chavez as a "scoundrel who asks that no one negotiate with the United States" while oil-rich Venezuela earns "50 billion US dollars a year" selling crude to Washington.

Mr. Garcia was reacting to Chavez's announcement that Venezuela was pulling out of the Andean Community, (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru) because the free-trade agreements Lima and Bogotá signed this year with Washington had effectively "killed the regional bloc".

The Peruvian candidate's remarks generated an immediate reaction from Chavez who announced he would call back his ambassador from Peru should this month's runoff be won by the former president, whom the Venezuelan described with epithets such as "swine" and "thief".

When Lima filed a formal protest over the outburst, Chavez labelled Toledo and Garcia as "gators from the same pool". Further fuelling the dispute Venezuelan Information Minister William Lara said on government managed television, "President Toledo has always played the part of a babbling puppet for the US" adding that by recalling the ambassador in Venezuela, Toledo "once again proves he's the U.S. government's office boy".

In the first round of the Peruvian presidential election Mr. Humala garnered 31% of the vote and it was only made official last week, following a tight runner ups vote by vote count, that his rival will be Mr. Garcia instead of Conservative candidate Lourdes Flores.

When Garcia was president his administration was marred by corruption and economic incompetence and followed by ten years of Conservative Alberto Fujimori.

Venezuela's Chavez makes no secret of his preference for Mr. Humala and has concentrated his attacks on Mr. Garcia's past administration and reputation.