National
King Juan Carlos and Hugo Chávez, friends again
By h.b.
Jul 25, 2008 - 6:02 PM

Diplomatic relations have returned to normal between Spain and Venezuela following the meeting on Mallorca between King Juan Carlos and Hugo Chávez. The meeting at the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca where the Spanish Royal Family spend the summer, has achieved wide press interest being the first time the Monarch has met with the President of Venezuela since famously asking him to shut up at the Ibero-American summit in Chile last year.

Chávez arrived an hour late for the meeting and joked with the King suggested they go to the beach, while Juan Carlos gave the President a t-shirt with the now famous words ‘por qué no te callas?’

Chávez went on to meet with the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in the afternoon, where the two talked about the petrol crisis and the E.U. immigration policy.

Zapatero said that the tension between the two countries was now removed and that he hoped that relations could be re-launched to put many joint projects, including petrol, into action.

Chávez, who was at the end of his European tour, told the press in Madrid that he had had a very pleasurable meeting with King Juan Carlos, and he underlined his friendship with both the monarch and Spain.