|  Hugo Chávez asked Spain president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to pass on his "best wishes to King Juan Carlos, who is an old friend" during their meeting at the Lima summit that ended yesterday.
Referring to the recent spat at the Ibero-American summit last November, the controversial Venezuelan leader declared, "what happened in Chile happened (...), from today we are back on the path of excellent relations that we have always had with the Spanish government - especially the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero - and the Spanish head of state, King Juan Carlos de Borbón."
For his part, Mr Zapatero said his meeting with president Chávez represented "the first step towards the reestablishment and complete normalisation" of bilateral relations.
The summit itself, which was attended by the heads of government of 45 of 60 participating countries from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe, closed with an ambitious declaration of intent to work together to fight against climate change and poverty.
Zapatero to meet Chávez at Lima summit
By: thinkSPAIN
Friday, May 16, 2008
 José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has a meeting arranged with Venezuela president, Hugo Chávez, at a summit of Latin American, Caribbean and EU leaders in Lima this weekend. It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since the infamous spat at the end of the Ibero-American summit last November when King Juan Carlos ended up telling the Venezuelan leader to 'shut up' for continually interrupting Mr Zapatero as he was defending former president Aznar whom Mr Chávez had earlier called a 'fascist'.
Mr Zapatero arrived in Lima yesterday after a brief stopover in Brasilia, where he had a meeting with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Today, Mr Zapatero has already had a meeting with Peruvian president, Alan García, and has been awarded an honorary degree by the rector of South America's oldest university, the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, the headquarters of which has just been restored using funds donated by the Spanish government (second photo).
German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who was described by Hugo Chávez recently as a political descendant of Hitler for appealing to other Latin American leaders to distance themselves from the radical left-wing Venezuelan president, will also be attending the summit.
For further information about the Ibero-American summit incident and the ensuing diplomatic crisis, follow the link below:
Prince will not convey personal message for Chávez from King
By: thinkSPAIN
Thursday, December 6, 2007
http://www.thinkspain.com/news/noticia.asp?CodNoticia=14039 |
