[NYTr] Ibero-Am Summit: Chavez-Juan Carlos Spat Grabs Attention of BBC

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[It's amusing that the BBC claims the Ibero-American Summit "received
little media coverage" until the argument described below. By the BBC,
maybe. Actually, the non-US-UK media did cover the Summit, and as usual
the BBC noticed only when there were some fireworks involving a Latin
American "star" (Chavez in this case; for years it was Fidel).  The
terminal triviality of the mainstream media should be an embarrassment
to them. It's not. The "fireworks" were also covered by the Venezuelan
media, of course -- but at the same time they were covering what
actually went on at the Summit. Almost none of this article is
accurate. The Summit WAS covered in the Latin American Spanish-language
media, and the fracas over Aznar has been commented upon by several
columnists on VHeadline, for example.  The only thing Murphy says here
that approaches the truth is that the relationships between Cuba and
Spain, and Venezuela and Spain, are delicately handled because the
economic ties are important. Cuba has not been silent on the possible
corruption of Aznar, nor attempts to put him on trial for dragging his
country into Bush's Iraq slaughter (not mentioned, of course, here), 
nor his closeness to the Bush regime. But it's only when there's some
theater that the dumb BBC or their Amerikan cousins seem to give a shit
about Latin Amerian politics. That's going to change, more and more as
time goes on. -NY Transfer.]

BBC - Nov 12, 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7091063.stm


Chavez refuses to be silenced

By Martin Murphy
BBC Americas analyst
	
The Ibero-American summit in Chile would have been just another meeting
of heads of state had it not been for the spat between Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez and the Spanish king.

The summit had received little coverage in the regional and Spanish
media until the video of the argument was posted online and shown on
television.

King Juan Carlos carried some responsibility for the affair, but it was
Mr Chavez who set the ball in motion by calling the former Spanish
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a fascist.

Labelling a Spanish prime minister a fascist carries a serious
undertone in Spain, considering the country's bloody civil war and
General Franco's 36-year-long military rule that followed.

The row made headlines in Spain and most newspapers highlighted the
fact that the king had told Mr Chavez to shut up.

The Latin American press followed the same line, except for the
official Venezuela daily, Diario Vea, which ignored the incident, and
an article in Juventud Rebelde by Cuban leader Fidel Castro defending
his close friend and ally Hugo Chavez. 

Left-wing leaders

This is not the first time that Mr Chavez' outbursts at an
international summit have overshadowed the issues being discussed.

Last year at the UN's General Assembly he called US President George W
Bush "the devil".

None of the other left-wing leaders in Latin America - despite their
ideological affinities with Mr Chavez - are as openly critical and
controversial as the Venezuelan president.

In the video, Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is also a key ally of
Mr Chavez, pokes his head out from the end of the table when the row
breaks out, but does not intercede.

Neither does the Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, who later used
his speech to attack Spanish companies doing business in Latin America.

It is interesting to imagine what Mr Castro would have said had he been
present at the summit.

No other leader in Latin America except Mr Castro - who has temporarily
stepped down as head of state due to his frail health - matches the
outspokenness of the Venezuelan president.

Mr Chavez, Mr Morales and Mr Ortega later took part in a people's
summit in Santiago, where the Venezuelan president defended his right
to criticise Mr Aznar and again attacked the Spanish king.

Business as usual

For a president whose role model is the Latin American independence
hero Simon Bolivar it was particularly ignominious that a Spanish king
treated him like a schoolboy.

Not only has Mr Chavez now told the king to shut up in return, he
suggested that perhaps he knew about the 2002 coup that briefly toppled
him - the same accusation he threw at Mr Aznar.

But the row is unlikely to hurt relations between the Venezuelan and
Spanish governments.

It was an ideological confrontation, not a political one.

Spain is one of the biggest investors in Venezuela, especially in the
financial and energy fields.

In 2006, more than 50% of the foreign investment in Venezuela came from
Spanish firms.

And business, not ideology, tends to regulate international affairs.

© BBC MMVII