By IANS
Madrid : Spain’s King Juan Carlos used his traditional Christmas Eve address to express Spain’s “feelings of brotherhood” with Latin America, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Tuesday.
The king emphasized Spain’s solidarity with all nations of Latin America.”Nothing that affects the Americas is foreign to us,” he said.
The king’s statement come after his much-publicized spat with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile, in November when the king following Chavez’s criticism of Spain’s former prime minister Jose Maria Azanar asked him to shut up.
The monarch also exhorted Spaniards to strive for unity in the struggle against terrorism and social ills such as poverty and domestic violence.
Spain, which has been long plagued by Basque separatist terrorism, witnessed a attack by radical Muslims in March 2004 of that left nearly 200 dead and more than 1,800 injured.
The king praised the contribution of immigrants to Spain’s prosperity.
While Spain has one of Europe’s most vibrant economies, pockets of distress persist, especially among the immigrants who now constitute 10 percent of Spain’s 45 million people.
The monarch stressed Madrid’s commitment to European integration, which he called an “essential piece of our own modernization”.
Juan Carlos exhorted his people to engage “our best efforts to promote and support the interests of Spain in the world, with the strength and credibility of external action based on broad consensus.”
He also expressed his gratitude for the members of security forces serving abroad and commemorated 10 Spanish soldiers who died in the line of duty during 2007.