Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The bully is blustering. Hugo the Chav claims that he is going to "profoundly review" Venezuela's relations with Spain, and added that King Juan Carlos is going to have to "apologize to Venezuela and Latin America in order to prevent relations with some countries from deteriorating further." He also threatened reprisals against those countries, like Chile and El Salvador, that supported Juan Carlos after the Showdown in Santiago. "It will be all the King's fault," he said.

The Chav warned that he is going to crack down on Spanish companies that do business in Venezuela, including the two big banks, BSCH and BBVA, oil company Repsol, telecoms operator Telefonica, insurance company Mapfre, and--get this--Prisa, the pro-Socialist media company that owns El Pais. Which I guess is no longer a mouthpiece for the Chav. Spanish companies have invested more than €1.7 billion in Venezuela since Chavez reached power.

Chavez finished off by comparing former prime minister Aznar to Adolf Hitler, which is what started the whole mess off on Saturday. Neither Zap or the King was willing to listen to the man whom the Spanish people elected twice as prime minister be called a Fascist. Legitimate criticism is one thing and anti-Spanish bigotry is another thing, and the King and Zap were absolutely right to stand up to the Chav's loud-mouthed vulgar demagogic boastful bullying.

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