Chile urges 'caution' in Peru spying row
Posted: 15 November 2009 0557 hrs

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SANTIAGO : Chile's government on Saturday dismissed allegations that members of its military had spied on neighbouring Peru, as a serious diplomatic row between the two countries deepened.

"When there are accusations of this type, governments must exercise caution," warned a Chilean presidential spokeswoman, denouncing the espionage claims against two Chilean military officials.

"We want to be clear: Chile does not spy," insisted spokeswoman Carolina Toha.

The spat has already forced the cancellation of a meeting in Singapore Sunday between Peru's President Alan Garcia and his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet.

A Peruvian court earlier began extradition proceedings against the two Chilean officers, as the government launched an official inquiry, justice officials in Lima said.

The Chileans, identified as Daniel Marquez Torrealba and Victor Vergara Rojas, were allegedly working with an officer of the Peruvian Air Force, Victor Ariza Mendoza, whose detention officials announced on Thursday.

News reports said that Ariza, who worked in 2002 in Peru's embassy in Santiago, has been charged with "revealing state secrets, money laundering and espionage" on behalf of Chile since September 2005.

Ariza, who reportedly confessed, would have earned 3,000 dollars a month for his involvement in passing on information, prosecutors said.

Authorities said they were also looking into the possible involvement of another Peruvian military officer in the case.

The row prompted Garcia on Saturday to cancel planned talks with Bachelet and quit a regional Pacific summit in Singapore a day early.

"I am returning 24 hours earlier than scheduled, so I can obtain complete and sufficient information (on the issue) and to be able to speak from Peru," Garcia said in Singapore at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

"We have to cancel (the meeting with Bachelet) because we are going back to Peru over this issue," Garcia told reporters.

Also speaking in Singapore, on Friday, Peru's foreign minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde, decried an "offensive act" by Chile, and called on Santiago to launch "an investigation into who in Chile gave the order" behind the alleged spying operation.

Garcia Belaunde said Peru's ambassador in Santiago would return home for consultations, but ruled out a break in bilateral relations.

The rift is the most serious in years between the two neighbors, which have had a long-running dispute over their maritime border in the Pacific Ocean.

Peru last year brought a claim before the International Court of Justice over territory lost to Chile in an 1879-1883 war.

Peru claims an area of about 100,000 square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean that is currently are under Chilean control.

For its part, Chile says the maritime border was settled by treaties in 1952 and 1954 -- treaties that Peru argues were meant to regulate fishing, not demarcate the border.

- AFP /ls