Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez demanded on Tuesday Spain’s king apologise for telling him to shut up, warning that Spanish investments could suffer in its former colony because of the spat.
Chávez, who railed against imperialism and capitalism, named banks Santander and BBVA as possible targets, saying the Opec nation did not need Spanish business.
”The king lost it,” Chávez said at a late-night political rally. ”He should say, ‘… I, the king, confess, I was beside myself, I made a mistake.”’
At the weekend, King Juan Carlos told Chávez to shut up at a summit of leaders from Latin America and Iberia when the Venezuelan leftist interrupted a speech by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero.
The controversy has tested relations with Spain, sparked headlines around the world and eclipsed debate in Venezuela over Chávez’s effort to win approval in a December 2 referendum to expand his powers, including scrapping term limits.
”Whatever has been privatised can be taken back, we can take it back,” Chávez said earlier at a news conference. ”If the government of Spain or the state of Spain … start to generate a conflict, things are not going to go well.”
Spain, a top investor in Venezuela and the rest of Latin America, sought to ease tensions through diplomatic channels.
”We are fully convinced that due to action being taken on all sides it will be possible in a relatively … short time, to return ties to normal,” Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said.
Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica is also a major mobile phone operator in the South American country.
Chávez, who has been nationalising swaths of the economy, took over the biggest phone company in Venezuela and also threatened to seize the whole banking sector this year as he tries to create a socialist state.
Spanish businesses have invested $2,4-billion in Venezuela since Chávez took office in 1999, according to Spain’s Business and Commerce Council.
Grupo Santander has about $700-million in investment in Venezuela, while Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA has $670-million invested, according to figures provided by the companies.
Controversial comic
Chávez, who called former conservative Spanish Prime Minister José MarÃa Aznar a fascist at the weekend meeting, has courted controversy at summits before, most notably last year by calling United States President George Bush the devil at the United Nations.
Political analysts say Chávez relishes such fights because he uses them to fire up his support base among the majority poor at home with blunt rhetoric that plays on their misgivings of rich countries’ investments in Latin America.
On Tuesday, he said the king’s ”arrogance” exposed that colonial attitudes toward South America have not died out.
But the folksy president also showed he had a sense of humour over the flap.
When a reporter asked him a series of questions about the raft of constitutional changes expected to be passed in next month’s plebiscite, he joked: ”Why don’t you shut up?” – Reuters