National
Hugo Chávez calls Aznar a fascist at the Latin American Summit, while Zapatero starts two new humanitarian initiatives
By h.b.
Nov 10, 2007 - 8:32 AM

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, called Spain’s previous Prime Minister, José María Aznar, a fascist as many as three times in his speech to the 12th Latin American Summit over the weekend.

The references came in Aznar’s support for the ALCA free trade area proposed by the United States, which Chávez described as ‘an imperialist project’.

King Juan Carlos and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero were both present from Spain, and announced several initiatives. A permanent base is to be set up in Panama to distribute emergency aid to all of Latin America, and also to help establish a security plan in the region, with programs to stop domestic violence and violence against children. Spain will give 72 million € to the initiative over the next five years.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero also announced the creation of new ‘Water Fund’ into which Spain would pay a minimum of 1.5 billion dollars over the next four years. He said he hoped other countries would contribute to the fund which had the target of meeting the millennium objectives in the region of reducing by half the number of people without drinking water by 2015.

Joking about the Spanish plans, King Juan Carlos is reported to have commented that ‘Zapatero and I are to the left of the Cuban delegation’, though he could have been referring to the seating plan.