LIMA, Peru (AP) — Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela says Trump Organization lawyers made a mistake by sending a letter to his office in which they appealed for the leader's help in a fight over the control of a luxury hotel.

In an interview with The Associated Press Friday, Varela said that he didn't believe Trump was directly involved in sending the letter nor did he feel any additional pressure to get involved in resolving the dispute.

Without specifically mentioning Trump, he said it is important for leaders to build a wall between their own private interests and those of the public.

The letter provided hard proof of the sort of conflict experts feared when Trump refused to divest from his sprawling empire of hotels and other interests in more than 20 countries.