Spanish king to Chavez: "Why don't you shut up?"

[WillyDaLegendarySnail^]

Being elected and then breaking the laws that brought you to power is no excuse. Hitler and Stalin did the same thing and Musharraf seems headed down the same road. I am not comparing Chavez or Musharraf to Hitler or Stalin. I am just using him as an example. If you let others run over you they will continue to do so and come to have even more contempt for you.
Apache

Actually Apache, these are the right comparisons. I lived in Venezuela for 3 years and my daughter still holds two passports. Few people know it, but Venezuela is the oldest democracy in the Western Hemisphere after the United States. The U.S. Congress gave the same medal it gave to George Washington to Simon Bolivar upon liberating Venezuela for finishing what General Washington began - the liberation of the hemisphere.

In terms of Chavez, this is a man who repeatedly tried to overthrow the democratically elected government while in the Army. He was imprisoned for it. He has never shown respect for a democratically elected government.

Yes he was elected - mainly by dividing the country and exploiting class differences by promising the world to the poor. Unfortunately, historic high oil prices have given him a limitless bank roll to fund wildly unsustainable programs essentially buying the vote of the less fortunate. Venezuela is a member of OPEC and one of the largest producers in the world.

Upon reaching office in his first term, Chavez began the systematic destruction of almost every democratic organ in Venezuela. He began nationalizing industry, rewriting history books in schools, dissolved the supreme court and replaced it with cronies, thousands of "wealthy" Venezuelans have lost their land and businesses just because they are not for Chavez.

This is not a democracy and this is not a man that deserves anyones admiration. Nobody deserves to be ruled this way, not even the naive poor that maybe getting a short term piece of candy and the joy of seeing the business class be decimated. The entire country is being set on a course of ruin, that is only thinly veiled by a morphine drip of oil.


This episode happened during a meeting of Democratically elected governments throughout the Americas. Once again Chavez was showing his contempt and lack of respect of what they stand for. Congrats to your PM for standing up for himself, Aznar and the Spanish people.

And to Rey Juan Carlos I say, thank god someone said what everyone else in the room wanted to say. Well played sir.

QFT, well said. Its just pretty sad that Chavez betrayed the people that were supporting him - and exploited them for his own beneficial needs.

And Chavez needs to show restraint in his arrogance. The King of Spain literally gave him a facial burn in front of the Spanish-speaking world because Chavez thinks he's the "high and mighty" one.

And a last thing to laugh about: When this incident occured, his mic was cut off - Chavez himself didn't know it. And the funny thing is, he still continued to rant like a b****, not knowing that his words were not amplified due to the mic cutoff.

[jaspurr]

Where is Venezuela Sorry guys, but I did not realise it was a significant power in the world. I can just picture the Queen and the French President having a toe to toe discussion and I suspect she would win.

[-Bar]

Where is Venezuela Sorry guys, but I did not realise it was a significant power in the world. I can just picture the Queen and the French President having a toe to toe discussion and I suspect she would win.

They aren't on the grid....

Problem with poorer nations, they are very easy to take control of as long as you say something they like. and then 20 years later they yell and scream for the U.S. to come save them and then 6 months later then call us the evil doers.

[rafles]

REVOLUCION COMPADRE!!!

sorry to hijack but you guys were getting too serius

[Minerva]

LOL rafles,

[jaspurr]

REVOLUCION COMPADRE!!!

sorry to hijack but you guys were getting too serius

Now thats enough, I have been called some things in my time, but serious, you can't be serious

[rafles]

sorry
















naaahh!!! but really jaspurr stop acting serious!

[BenKenobi]

[WillyDaLegendarySnail^]

Where is Venezuela Sorry guys, but I did not realise it was a significant power in the world. I can just picture the Queen and the French President having a toe to toe discussion and I suspect she would win.

Venezuela is the South American country that's been making the news headlines for the past year or so - mostly about the events going on in the country itself - and about Chavez himself doing the "you know what" crap. (and no its not BS propanganda, lol)

They aren't on the grid....

Problem with poorer nations, they are very easy to take control of as long as you say something they like. and then 20 years later they yell and scream for the U.S. to come save them and then 6 months later then call us the evil doers.

Lmao - true in some ways. *Recalls the Monroe Doctrine*.

ROFL.

[LucidInsanity]

Hey all, was just browsing through the forums again for my one time visit and since I'm a Political Sciences and History major, I had to throw in my two cents on the situation!

While I do not completely agree with Chavez and how he acts and what he does, I do think that he is doing something good for Venezuela. He has inspired nationalism and pride in a third world country, it has seen its GDP increase among other things. While he has thrown his weight around, doesn't he sort of have to? Given his situation as a weak, poor, third world nation where the United States has a history of intervening when we see something we don't like (read: Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia, El Salvador, Cuba, Uruguay, Paraguay, Guatemala, Argentina, and Venezuela), would his machismo not be warranted? We, the United States, act very much in the same way. Just a few months ago there was talk of invading Iran, why? Because they weren't listening to us. Is this diplomacy or imperialism? What would have happened if we invaded Iran, rather than staying on the diplomatic course? We have stayed on the diplomatic course, and Iran is beginning to comply. This is paralleled with North Korea, and how North Korea and South Korea entered into talks about helping each other out, and North Korea is now beginning to shut down its largest weapons grade plutonium reactor, something which cannot be stopped without a lengthy start up procedure.

Now as far as Spain's King telling Chavez "por que no te callas?" Absolutely hilarious.