King Juan Carlos and President Hugo Chavez patched up their differences Friday in their first meeting since the Spanish monarch told the Venezuelan leader to 'shut up' at a summit last year. The king, wearing a light grey suit and pink tie, shook hands and patted Chavez's arm when the Venezuelan president arrived at the Marivent Palace, his summer residence in the Balearic island of Majorca in the Mediterranean. 'Why don't we go to the beach,' joked Chavez, saying he felt as if he was in Cuba or Jamaica because of the heat. The light-hearted exchange drew a line under the brief diplomatic spat in November last year when the king told Chavez, 'Why don't you shut up,' during the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. Chavez had repeatedly interrupted Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero during a speech and called former conservative Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a 'fascist.' The king's outburst became a catchphrase in the Spanish speaking world which appeared on T-shirts and was even turned into a mobile phone ringtone that was downloaded by millions of people. At a joint press conference with Zapatero later on Friday in Madrid, Chavez said he had jokingly told the king that he owed him some money but Juan Carlos had not taken out a copyright on the phrase.
No comments:
Post a Comment