Bolivian President Evo Morales ripped into his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday, calling the Andean leader “an agent of the empire”, who attended the Rio Group Summit in Mexico in order to sabotage it.
Morales accused Uribe of only attending the two day summit in Cancun “for the photos and the lunch.”
The Bolivian leader’s accusations follow a shouting match between Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during a lunch for heads of state on Monday.
Morales told press that Uribe “provoked” Chavez with a “surprise intervention” during the Monday lunch and added that Chavez had “listened patiently” to the Colombian leader’s complaints.
“This event [the summit] almost got stuck in the mud and I’m not scared to tell the truth. U.S. agents came to try to hold up and make this event fail,” Morales said.
Chavez said Tuesday that Venezuela is ready to begin normalizing relations with Colombia.
Morales is one of several Latin American leaders, including Chavez, who strongly opposed the Colombia-U.S. military agreement signed in November, which allows the U.S. military to use seven airbases in Colombia.
According to Morales the U.S. use of military bases on Colombian soil is an invasion of South America.
