The airline apologised and fired the managers responsible. That did not deter Peru's Congress from taking a hand. A congressional committee changed a transport bill to ban investments in ports and airports from "neighbouring countries with a Pacific coastline". President Alejandro Toledo's government called off a bilateral meeting of foreign and defence ministers, and backed away from plans for free-trade talks with Chile.

Officials also chose to rake up allegations by an Ecuadorean general that Chile had sold his country weapons during a border war with Peru in 1995. Chile responded that the sale was in 1994; the general later admitted he got his dates wrong. Even so, Peru wants a formal apology.

Chilean politicians dismiss all this as an attempt by Peru's unpopular president to distract attention from his woes. They note that Peru protested less vehemently when Argentina, its alleged ally, sold arms to Ecuador during the war. In 2003 the authorities shut down a Chilean-owned pasta factory built illegally in wetlands near Lima, but they have done nothing about two nearby American-owned factories. Similarly, two Chilean youths who sprayed graffiti on an Inca wall in Cusco spent six months in jail, whereas a Peruvian beer company which damaged Machu Picchu's stone sundial while filming a commercial got away with a small fine.