Page One Daily News
VENEZUELA - Give and Take

* VENEZUELA

Give and Take
Spain and Venezuela have yet to overcome their recent differences

Spain's President Jose Juis Rodriguez Zapatero said today that he hopes he can "count on" the support of Venezuela in the fight against ETA, and asked President Hugo Chavez's government to respect Spanish judicial institutions and the former president, Jose Maria Aznar. Roriguez Zapatero's stance comes as a response to statements made on Sun. by Venezuela's chancellor, Nicolas Maduro, who said that judge Eloy Velasco, who mentioned in a judicial writ a link between the FARC, ETA and the Venezuelan government, "is part of the former president's, Jose Maria Aznar's, mafia." Rodriguez Zapatero said that he did not consider Maduro's statements "acceptable." This is not the first time the president of the Spanish government has come out in defense of his predecessor. In 2007, at the Iber-American Summit in Santiago de Chile, Rodriguez Zapatero asked Hugo Chavez for respect in the middle of a public controversy which included King Juan Carlos.
08-Mar-2010 06:03pm