[NYTr] Bloomberg: Fidel Calls Spanish PM "Cowardly"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Bloomberg - Nov 16, 2007 18:03 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=amxxR0BLna3Y&refer=latin_america

Cuba's Castro Calls Spanish Prime Minister `Cowardly'

By Matthew Walter

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Cuba's President Fidel Castro described as
``cowardly'' remarks that Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero directed at Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during last
week's Ibero-American summit in Chile.

Castro, 81, issued a statement today to side with Chavez, his closest
ally, who was told to ``shut up'' at the summit by Spanish King Juan
Carlos I after the Venezuelan leader called Spain's former Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar Lopez a fascist. Zapatero also defended Aznar
from Chavez's attack, telling him that his predecessor was elected
democratically.

The exchange was ``an unambiguous display of the genocidal ways and
methods of the empire, its accomplices and the anesthetized victims of
the Third World,'' Castro wrote in an e- mailed ``reflection,''
entitled ``The Ideological Waterloo.''

By taking up the spat, Castro underscored the tensions ignited this
week between Zapatero and Latin American leaders allied with Chavez.
The Venezuelan president, who says he views Castro as a father, said
this week that his country doesn't need Spanish investment, and
announced plans to ``deeply review'' economic, political and diplomatic
relations with Spain.

A spokesperson for Zapatero declined to comment when contacted by
Bloomberg.

`Scene'

The row is a diplomatic setback for the Spanish prime minister, a
member of Spain's socialist party, who has said he wants strong
relations with Cuba and Venezuela, said Daniel Erikson, a senior
associate at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington D.C.

``It's a pretty embarrassing scene when the king of Spain has to
intervene to tell a president to shut up,'' Erikson said. ``It's a
breakdown in diplomatic protocol.''

Chavez said today that the Spanish King owes him an apology, and
questioned why Zapatero would side with Aznar, who Chavez says
supported a coup aimed at unseating him in 2002.

``I didn't understand Zapatero's argument,'' Chavez said in an
interview on Venezuelan state television. ``Aznar is a coup monger and
a fascist, and I'll say it whenever I feel like it. Zapatero tried to
defend privatizations and to defend neo-liberalism.''

While the Spanish government has downplayed the incident over the past
week, it has been a top story in Latin American media, making its way
into political debates and popular culture across the region.

`Shut Up'

YouTube.com has been flooded with rap and reggaeton versions of the
exchange, showing King Juan Carlos pointing the finger at Chavez, and
the king's words, ``Why don't you shut up,'' have become a popular
ring-tone in Spain.

Colombian television channel Caracol broadcast the confrontation, set
to music, on its morning show today, and the Buenos Aires daily Bae ran
``Latin America Won't Shut Up,'' as a headline in their international
news section.

Castro, who hasn't been seen in public since undergoing
gastrointestinal surgery in July 2006, communicates with the public now
only through written essays and television broadcasts that are usually
pre-taped.

On Oct. 14 he spoke live by phone for more than an hour with Chavez on
the Venezuelan president's weekly television program.

Castro, who's ruled Cuba since 1959, handed temporary governing
authority over to his brother last year because of his failing health.