King Juan Carlos has fuelled a diplomatic row with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after telling him to ‘shut up’.
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The king snapped at the Socialist leader during the Ibero-American Summit in Chile on Saturday (10.11.07) after Chavez branded former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a ‘fascist’.
Chavez accused Aznar – a close friend of US President George Bush – of backing a 2002 coup against him, before adding: ‘Fascists are not human a snake is more human.’
Current Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defended his colleague, saying: ‘Mr Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people.’
The president continually tried to interrupt Zapatero prompting the king to lean forward and say: ‘Why don’t you shut up?’ According to Chavez, the royal then ‘acted like an angry bull as he stormed out’ of the conference.
On Sunday (11.11.07), Chavez said he hoped the dispute would not ‘damage relations’ between the countries but added he found the king’s actions ‘imprudent’.
Speaking at a news conference, he said: ‘I hope this will not damage relations. But I think it’s imprudent for a king to shout at a president to shut up. Mr King, we are not going to shut up.’
The president also demanded to know if the monarch had advance knowledge of the 2002 two-day coup. Chavez asked whether the king gave his blessing to Spain’s ambassador to support the Venezuelan interim president Pedro Carmona during the rebellion.
He said: ‘Mr King, did you know about the coup d’etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002? It’s very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the
presidential palace supporting the coup plotters without authorisation from his majesty.’
