Noble Peace Prize winner mistaken for a bag lady, or just a lie told around the world?

A policy center which sends me email is circulating a story supposedly from the Guardian in England (though it's no longer online if it ever existed) that Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace prize winner currently running for president in Guatemala, was mistaken for an indigenous beggar woman by the staff of a 5-star hotel in Cancun. She was there for a conference on potable water earlier this week.

Here's the emailed story in part.

Staff at Cancun's five-star Hotel Coral Beach appear to have assumed this was another street vendor or beggar, so without asking questions they ordered her to leave. Except the woman was Rigoberta Menchu, the Nobel peace prizewinner, Unesco goodwill ambassador, Guatemalan presidential candidate and figurehead for indigenous rights.

The attempted eviction, an example of discrimination against indigenous people common in central and south America, backfired when other guests recognised Ms Menchu, and interceded on her behalf.

But is it true? Menchu is quoted in a Yucatan paper saying it is not.

“Yo no me enteré de nada. Si en algún lugar me aman es en México, por lo que voy a pedir a este medio (la radio que dio la noticia) que pida una disculpa pública. Es una noticia falsa que me está causando daño”, dijo la laureada dirigente indígena guatemalteca.

She goes on to say that if they had harrassed her she would have raised bloody hell and that she doesn' t need a "Rambo" to protect her.

So which version is true? My money's on the Mexican version. It's actually a piece of journalism rather than the second-hand rumour style of the purported Guardian piece.