[R-G] Venezuela disowns 'provocative' earthquake aid

[Anthony Fenton]

Venezuela disowns 'provocative' earthquake aid

http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2153685,00.html

Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Wednesday August 22, 2007
The Guardian

Peru's earthquake relief effort was shaken by a political row  
yesterday over food aid with labels bearing an image of Venezuela's  
President Hugo Chávez and criticism of Peru's government.

The cans of tuna, with labels lauding Mr Chávez and condemning  
Peruvian authorities as "slow, inefficient and heartless", were  
distributed to survivors of a quake which destroyed several towns and  
killed more than 500 people last week.

Peru's president, Alan García, expressed dismay. "One has to ask who  
is behind this. This is not the moment to take advantage of the  
circumstances to make electoral propaganda." Mr García, who has been  
under fire for delays in getting food, blankets and other aid to  
stricken areas, has a tetchy relationship with the Venezuelan leader.

Article continues
But Venezuela issued a forceful denial of any links to the polemical  
aid and said it might be an attempt to smear Mr Chávez as a cynical  
opportunist. "This is a damaging manipulation, a vile manipulation  
because Venezuela has brought humanitarian aid, not party politics,"  
the country's ambassador, José Armando Laguna, told CPN Radio in  
Lima. "If they want, they can go and open all the bags that  
[Venezuela] brought and verify there is no political propaganda."

Venezuela has sent two military aircraft with 25 tonnes of food over  
the Andes to Peru. Venezuela's information minister, Willian Lara,  
said "hidden" forces were trying to make it appear that Mr Chávez was  
manipulating the tragedy.

The cans were distributed in Chincha, the province south of Lima  
which bore the brunt of the 8.0 magnitude quake, but it has not been  
established by whom. The story broke in the Lima daily Expresso, a  
newspaper hostile to Mr Chávez.

The label on the cans reads: "In the face of the natural disaster ...  
the Peruvian Nationalist party, along with our sister Bolivarian  
Republic of Venezuela, its leader Hugo Chávez and our leader Ollanta  
Humala, makes itself present because the Peruvian government acts in  
a slow, inefficient and heartless manner, not caring about the pain  
of the victims and leaving them suffering from hunger, thirst and  
theft."

Mr Humala is a leftwing opposition leader who was backed by Mr Chávez  
in last year's presidential election but lost to Mr García. He has  
been attempting to mount a new challenge on the back of the  
president's sliding approval ratings. A spokesman for Mr Humala's  
party denied any links to the controversial aid.

The row threatened to undermine a fragile reconciliation between the  
two presidents. After trading harsh insults last year, Mr Chávez, an  
outspoken leftist who assails the United States, made up with Mr  
García, a conservative who seeks good relations with Washington.