nv1962

English translation of El País analyst’s take on the Chavez-Aznar-Zapatero row

I just came across a great write-up by senior El País journalist Ernesto Ekaizer — the same one who wrote the analysis accompanying the publication of the now famous Aznar-Bush transcript — who casts a clinical eye on the widely misunderstood spat between Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the Spanish government. Instead of focusing on the well-known royal outburst (which is hugely popular in Spain, becoming an overnight cell phone ringtone hit) he looks at what might be behind this quickly escalating flap. I liked it so much that I decided to translate and post it in its entirety, below. So here it is - the contents are clearly of/by Ernesto Ekaizer / El País; the translation into English is my own contribution to (hopefully) dispelling some of the more ridiculous “explanations” that I’ve seen floating out there, as illustrated in this utterly ridiculous presentation delivered by an “expert” interviewed on (I think) the BBC.

Oh yeah - one more thing: I’ve added a few (hopefully) helpful links, and some [clarifying comments in square brackets] neither of which, of course, are part of Ernesto’s article posted on El País.

Incident at the Ibero-American Summit

The strategy of “Hugo Bolivar”

The Venezuelan president uses the Spanish King for his own referendum

By ERNESTO EKAIZER / EL PAÍS
11/15/2007
Madrid

Hugo Chavez arrived in Santiago de Chile with a single idea: to use the Ibero-American Summit to strengthen the yes vote for his greatly expanded powers and his perpetuated stay in power, as proposed by the referendum held next December. He didn’t achieve that in the conclusions of the summit, but Chavez left the Chilean capital for Caracas with a trophy that is perhaps even more profitable for his enterprise: the head of the King.

After his return from the summit, Enrique Iglesias, the secretary-general [of the Ibero-American Cooperation Secretariat, coordinating organ for the yearly summits] still thinks the same as he maintained, shortly after the summit ended, while the spat among [Spanish prime minister] Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. “This is the summit with the best harvest to date, with the social security agreement having been approved.” Old fox that he is, Iglesias doesn’t step into the political fray that is going on behind the scenes: the constitutional referendum held this coming December to give Chavez extensive powers, and the general elections held March 9 in Spain. “What matters is social security, or the drinking water project, among others.”

According to Iglesias, the six months of preparation work forecast a peaceful summit. “The Venezuelans preferred the notion of social justice over [that of] social cohesion in the final comunique. But it’s not a fundamental debate. Social cohesion is much more than reduction of inequality,” Iglesias points out [note by nv1962: one of the key results is that the government leaders attending the summit agreed on freeing up pension across all participating states, currently 22, so that migrant workers can retire in any participating country of choice without suffering a "pension penalty"]. So then, how did the seed of the recent clash in Chile come to germinate?

It is a fact that the U.S. network Fox, owned by mogul Rupert Murdoch, maintains a systematic campaign against Hugo Chavez, as is the propaganda crusade [against] him by Spanish ex prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, a board member of that media conglomerate.

No new facts have come out, either, about the genesis of the coup in April, 2002. The Aznar government acted in coordination with the U.S. State Department. The Spanish and U.S. ambassadors met at the presidential palace with the leader of the coup, the businessman Pedro Carmona, and they issued a statement taking for a fact that Chavez, who [at that moment] was imprisoned in army barracks, had been permanently taken out of commission. In Madrid, the P.P. [the People’s Party] was celebrating his fall too soon.

The content of the summit wasn’t giving Chavez fuel for his campaign, and on Friday morning the Venezuelan president underscored as much: the summit was irrelevant. Everybody, he explained, should embrace the “Bolivarian Project” for Latin America. And he also attacked Aznar.

Neither Zapatero, the King, or junior minister [of Foreign Affairs] Trinidad Jimenez were sitting at the table [in their chairs]. They were holding meetings with other presidents, outside the room. Only Nicolas Martinez Fresno, secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, was listening. He took notice and passed the information on. Zapatero, who was getting ready to attend lunch with the presidents, gave [his minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel] Moratinos instructions to express his displeasure that same afternoon. And so he did.

King Juan Carlos, who was informed on everything, ran that same Friday into the Venezuelan president.

“At your orders, Your Majesty,” Chavez said sympathetically.

The King took him upon his word:

“Yes, at my orders… If you are at my orders, don’t say that type of things anymore…”

The next day, during the closing session, Chavez returned with his fireworks of choice: Aznar. Zapatero didn’t let that slip past him, but the King’s accumulated anger surfaced au naturel.

The underlying idea that this summit should serve to bolster the yes vote for the constitutional reforms didn’t materialize. However, the King’s gesture turned the fiction, by which Chavez aspires to win the referendum, into reality – at least, for the time being. [South American liberation hero] Simon Bolivar has come alive again under the skin of Chavez against the Spanish Crown.

And the worst yet: that the Spanish right wing is ready to complement Chavez’ game, by strongly betting on such fiction.