By IANS
Paris : Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said Spanish King Juan Carlos made “a mistake” when he told him to shut up during a recent summit in Chile, but added that the matter “would be settled” if the monarch apologised.
“What the king – who is a serious man – has to do now is apologise and admit that he blew his top,” Chavez told mediapersons here Tuesday after talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Chavez added that the king had disrespected a head of state, reported Spanish news agency EFE.
The incident occurred Nov 10 during the final session of the Ibero-American Summit, when King Juan Carlos, exasperated by Chavez’s attacks on a former Spanish premier, shouted at the Venezuelan president, “Why don’t you shut up.”
“There is no conflict with Spain, with the Spain we love so much, with the Spanish people, with their institutions,” Chavez said Tuesday.
Recalling the episode at the summit, the president said “the king, I don’t know why, lost patience (and) shouted at me”.
“The king was lucky I didn’t hear him. If I had, I would have confronted him very firmly,” he added.
In a veiled threat, Chavez last week had said if an apology from Madrid failed to come, he would subject Spanish business, which is Venezuela’s largest foreign investor, to closer scrutiny.
There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity both in Madrid and Caracas to avert a breakdown in bilateral relations over the incident at the Chile summit.