Noblesse Oblige
With rank and privilege come responsibilities. King Juan Carlos to Hugo Chavez, “Why don’t you shut up?” Peasant-royal spat continues:
The diplomatic row between Hugo Chavez and Spain intensified yesterday as the Venezuelan president demanded to know the Spanish monarch’s knowledge of a coup that briefly removed the Socialist leader from power.
Mr Chavez, who was in Chile for the Ibero-American summit, claimed that Spain’s ambassador had appeared at Venezuela’s presidential palace during the two-day coup in 2002 to support the interim president Pedro Carmona.
Mr Chavez insisted that such support could only have been sanctioned with the Spanish King’s blessing.
His comments followed the public spat in which Spanish King Juan Carlos told Chavez to “shut up” during an increasingly acrimonious summit.
The King’s outburst came moments after the president had called Spain’s former prime minister, Jose Maria Aznar, a “fascist” for backing the coup. At the end of the conference, Mr Chavez asked to what extent Juan Carlos had supported the coup.
“Mr King, did you know about the coup d’etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?” he said at a press conference yesterday.
“It’s very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the presidential palace supporting the coup-plotters without authorization from his majesty.”
No one was available to comment at the Spanish embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, or at the royal palace in Madrid, Spain, yesterday.
The fracas began when Mr Chavez accused Mr Aznar, of backing the 2002 coup and repeatedly called him “fascist” in an address at the summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
“Fascists are not human. A snake is more human,” Mr Chavez said during the conference. Spain’s current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, asked Mr Chavez to be more diplomatic and show respect for other leaders despite political differences.
“President Hugo Chavez, I think there is an essential principle to dialogue, and that is, to respect and be respected, we should be careful not to fall into insults,” Mr Zapatero said.
Mr Chavez continued to interrupt as Zapatero spoke, although his microphone was switched off.
A frustrated King Juan Carlos, sitting next to Mr Zapatero, leaned toward Mr Chavez and said: “Why don’t you shut up?” The monarch then left the chamber.
“They told me some Spanish officials grabbed him by the arm, because he’s strong and tall. He acted like an angry bull as he stormed out,” Mr Chavez recalled in comments published yesterday by Spain’s El Mundo newspaper.
“I’m no bullfighter, but ole!” he added.
Mr Chavez, who faces violent protests at home against a proposed constitutional reform package that would greatly boost his power, said the incident had been exaggerated by the media.
“I hope this will not damage relations,” Mr Chavez said as he left his Santiago hotel room. “But I think it’s imprudent for a king to shout at a president to shut up.”
Now here’s an example of a useful monarch, moving beyond ceremonial yawns, ribbon-cuttings, preachy do-gooder campaigns. Maybe an assortment of sort-tempered, mouthy royals should be kept on hand at places like the UN, to tell bloviating dictators to shut up, that they’re ill-mannered peasants, that kind of thing.
“Porque no te callas?” vid here.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:28 pm Comments (8) on Monday, November 12, 2007
8 Responses to “Noblesse Oblige”
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November 13th, 2007 at 1:25 am
My God, but that man is a base thug. Even Idi Amin had better manners before the cameras. Chavez belongs on a street corner; let the celebs go kneel in adulation on the skids, where their sanction belongs.
I applaud the King. I feel like telling Sr. Chavez to shut up every time I hear him speak.
November 13th, 2007 at 4:38 am
Pity he didn’t ’send him to the tower’. Torquemada would have a field day with Chavez!!
November 13th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
“I feel like telling Sr. Chavez to shut up every time I hear him speak.”
I feel the same way about Comrade Penn and his thug worshipping pals in Hollywood.
November 13th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
““Fascists are not human. A snake is more human,” Mr Chavez said during the conference.”
This coming from a fascist?
2. an authoritarian system of government under absolute
control of a single dictator, allowing no political
opposition, forcibly suppressing dissent, and rigidly
controlling most industrial and economic activities. Such
regimes usually try to achieve popularity by a strongly
nationalistic appeal, often mixed with racism.
PJC
What is really telling is that the celebs are making movies against the “Fascist Dictator Boooosh” while supporting the real enchilada! That is part of the reason the boxoffice is dying. People do see these things.
La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha……
November 13th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Sorry,
Definition borrowed from Websters 1913
La Cucaracha borrowed and transmogrified for other uses from unknown (1883)
November 13th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
“rigidly controlling most industrial and economic activities.”
Aka socialism.
November 14th, 2007 at 12:57 am
“Fascists are not human.”
True. Latin American fascist dictators aren’t really human. They’re more like insects. and you know what happens to insects that become a nuisance? They get stepped on.
Might want to give that a little thought, Hugo, before you wind up as a smear on the bottom of our boot.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Mike H,
That definition of Fascism can’t be from Websters 1913 since Fascism did not exist until after WWI. I think Benny the Moose formed his Fascist party in 1919 or 1920.