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Chavez warns Venezuela's ties with Spain under review
AFP/ Juan Barreto
A diplomatic row between Venezuela and Spain deepened Wednesday as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, seen here on 13 November 2007, said he would review ties between the two countries after being told to "shut up" by the king.CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 11 15 07A row between Venezuela and Spain escalated Wednesday as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would review ties between the two countries after being told to "shut up" by the Spanish king.
"We don't want to damage (relations) but at this moment I am putting political, diplomatic and economic relations under a thorough revision," Chavez told regional television TVO.
He said the review meant Spanish firms would be under close scrutiny.
"I am going to put them under the spotlight to see what they are doing here, all the Spanish firms that are in Venezuela," he said.
Several big Spanish companies have investments in Venezuela, including telecommunications group Telefonica, the banks Santander and BBVA, and the Spanish-Argentinian oil group Repsol YPF.
Chavez's tough words came after a heated confrontation over the weekend at the close of the Ibero-American Summit in which the Venezuelan president called the former Spanish prime minister a "fascist" and Spain's King Juan Carlos interjected:
"Why don't you just shut up?"
Chavez also said the current Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was "not coherent" in recent remarks, referring to Zapatero's call for good sense to calm relations.
"He speaks of good sense," Chavez said, but with Zapatero, who "takes up the defense against a fascist and the abuse of truth, and a king who tramples or tries to trample the dignity of a people, it is difficult to have good relations."
Chavez branded Spain's former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a "fascist" for allegedly having backed a 2002 coup attempt against him.
On Tuesday night, Chavez said the Spanish monarch should apologize.
"The least he could do is to offer his apologies to Venezuela and to the other Ibero-American heads of state," he said in an interview with the regional television Promar, according to a government statement.
He said it was "sad" that Zapatero had defended Aznar, who he condemned for backing President George W. Bush's war in Iraq. "How many people have been killed in Iraq?"
He said Zapatero had unfairly denounced Chavez for "a legitimate act of defense that I assumed in the name of Venezuela."
Chavez also alleged he had proof that there had been a plan in Spain to invade Venezuela, prepared in 2001. "Now I have doubts if the king knew about this."
Aznar, however, said on Tuesday that Chavez had attacked him merely to draw attention away from Venezuela's internal problems.
"I'm old enough to know some people need foreign enemies when things start going wrong back home ... Therefore, I'm not going to fan all that nonsense and lies. I will simply ignore them," said Aznar on Colombian television without mentioning Chavez by name.
In Spain, Zapatero said on Tuesday that King Juan Carlos had given a "spontaneous" reaction to Chavez' remarks on Saturday, and expressed hope that relations with Caracas would recover.
"Spain has given an appropriate response to an inappropriate attitude," he remarked to reporters.
Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told Spain's Senate that he hoped the whole incident would not damage relations between the two countries.
Story from AFP 14 2033 GMT 11 07
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