Bolivia ? An American scholar said Friday that an official at the U.S. Embassy asked him to keep tabs on Venezuelan and Cuban workers in Bolivia. Washington said that any such request would be an error and against U.S. policy.

“I was shocked,” Fulbright scholar Alex van Schaick told The Associated Press. “I mean, this man’s asking me to spy for the U.S. government.” Van Schaick is one of six Fulbright scholars doing research in the country.

The U.S. Embassy in La Paz issued a statement Friday saying that “some routine information sessions about security given to certain American citizens included incorrect information. As soon as this was brought to our attention, appropriate measures were taken to assure that these errors would not be repeated.”

U.S. State Department spokes-man Gonzalo Gallegos said in Washington that any such request would have been a mistake.

“Worldwide, we adhere to a strict understanding with the Peace Corps that their volunteers are not permitted to act in any sort of intelligence capacity,” Gallegos said. “If anyone suggested that any members of either group provide information outside the scope of their work or positions, it was an error and is not U.S. government policy.”