News Services

LIMA, Peru, June 29 -- Peru recalled its ambassador from Venezuela today amid an escalating diplomatic quarrel over the capture of Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro
Montesinos last weekend, the government said.

"With the agreement of our President [Valentin Paniagua] we have recalled our ambassador from Caracas," Prime Minister Javier Perez de Cuellar said at a news
conference.

Peru's recall of Ambassador Luis Marchand from Caracas comes the day after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he had recalled his ambassador from Lima
after what he called "unfriendly" attempts from Peru to snare Montesinos, who dodged an eight-month manhunt, on Venezuelan soil.

Montesinos, who allegedly bribed Peru's Congress, courts, military and media for a decade in exchange for favors for then-President Alberto Fujimori, fled Peru amid a
corruption scandal last year.

He was nabbed last weekend near Caracas and sent home to face a laundry list of more than 50 cases with charges ranging from money laundering to drug rackets to
murder.

Montesinos's wife said on Peruvian television tonight that he had begun a hunger strike to protest his transfer to a maximum-security prison he had helped design.

"He came with the best intention of collaborating with authorities," she said, adding that his presence in the prison could make him vulnerable to an attempt on his life by
military officers.

The shock capture of Latin America's most wanted man -- credit for which has been claimed by Peru, Venezuela and the FBI -- has sparked a diplomatic imbroglio with
both Peru and Venezuela saying they have been insulted.

"We were victims of real verbal aggression. . . . We are reacting with the immediate recall of our ambassador and then will study the situation," Perez de Cuellar said.

Peruvian Interior Minister Antonio Ketin Vidal has said Peru was active in negotiating a planned turnover of Montesinos to Peruvians in Caracas but that the plan was
"interrupted" at the last minute by Venezuelan intelligence agents.

He also thanked the FBI for key collaboration in the arrest.

But Chavez, who warned that the trade integration of the Andean region could be at risk in the diplomatic spat, accused Vidal of "lying" and insisted Venezuela's military
intelligence service instead deserved sole credit.

He said the diplomatic measure would be in effect until Peruvian President-elect Alejandro Toledo takes office on July 28.

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