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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2005 
Mexican Government Offended by Chávez Remarks
 AP
| | Mexico's relations with Venezuela 'are not fractured' despite Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's remarks that his Mexican counterpart acted like a 'puppy' of the United States at the recent Americas summit held in Argentina, a government spokesman said Thursday. (AP/Jose Luis Magana) |
The Mexican government said on Wednesday it is calling in the Venezuelan ambassador to explain remarks by President Hugo Chávez, after Chávez called President Vicente Fox "a puppy" of the United States.
The comments came in Chávez's first public speech since last week's 34-nation summit in Argentina, where Chávez railed against a U.S.backed free trade plan, and Fox defended it "The Venezuelan Ambassador, Vladimir Villegas Poljak, has been summoned to provide explanations in the case," the Foreign Relations Secretariat said in a press statement.
The statement said Mexico wanted Villegas Poljak to account for Chávez's comments.
Fox condemned Chávez's performance at the summit, suggesting the Venezuelan leader was seeking media attention and wasn't acting seriously.
Fox, apparently irked by Chávez's strident anti-U.S. tone, said after the summit that "there we have some presidents, fortunately a minority, who blame other countries for all their problems."
Chávez shot back Wednesday, saying "how sad that the president of a great country like Mexico allowed himself to be the puppy of the (U.S.) empire."
Fox was a staunch supporter of the U.S.-proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, which aims to create the world's largest free trade zone stretching from Alaska to Argentina. First proposed in 1994, it was supposed to have been finalized last January but stalled.
After the summit failed to reach an agreement to resume talks, Fox called for the 29 supporting nations to continue negotiations without the dissenters.
Chávez proclaimed a "knockout" victory after five countries at the summit Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay emerged in opposition, saying the conditions were not right for it to be accepted.
The Venezuelan leader, who has proposed a "Bolivarian Alternative" trade pact, said Wednesday that Fox left the summit "bleeding from his injuries." |
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