(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-18 13:23

LIMA - The Peruvian government on Monday rejected statements by the governor of its Puno province that the region is on its way to becoming independent from the central government.

"Peru is a united state, as signaled in its republican tradition and its constant constitutional tradition," said Jorge del Castillo, president of Peru's Council of Ministers.

"If (Puno province governor Hernan) Fuentes, who by the way does not even have 5-percent approval rates in Puno, is really trying to create a separate state, then that is a seditious attitude," he said.

Castillo said that sedition was the best explanation for Puno's decision to pass a rule in favor of coca-leaf production, even though 95 percent of the crop, some 1,500 hectares, is used to make illegal cocaine, while the remaining 5 percent is bought by state company Enaco.

Fuentes failed to approve new rules for hiring teachers, said Castillo, describing Fuentes as having "a lamentable ideological dependence on foreign powers."

Regional leaders from 24 other jurisdictions in the country had rejected Fuentes's independence moves, he added.

Yehude Simons, coordinator for the regions and leader of the Lambayeque region, described Fuentes's statements as damaging to the state-backed regionalization process.

Puno is an eastern province bordering Bolivia. Most of its population has ethnic Aymara roots.