The King of Spain tells Hugo Chavez to shut it

[ag]

I think it helps Chavez to have Franco's heir criticizing him.

Except that Juan Carlos is extremely popular even among those Spaniards who, in general, would like to see the monarchy abolished.  I am not aware if such a poll was ever done, but I'd be shocked if in a sample of self-professed Spanish republicans (in the Spanish sense of the word) Juan Carlos would get a less than 60% or even 70% approval rating.  Even when you speak to Catalan republican nationalists, most of them profess their highest respect for this particular monarch. I think that in a race between Chavez and the King where all voters were card-carrying members of the Spanish Communist Party (the IU), the King would win by a decent margin.  There is no politician in Spain (and hasn't been in 30 years) who comes close to the King in popularity and respect - and this popularity is, probably, higher on the Spanish left and among opponents of Franco than it is on the right.

[ag]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

Chavez is not a Communist.  He is a Mussolini-style fascist.

[ag]

1. The King got a near-unanimous support within Spain - all major parliamentary political parties, but Communists, have publically praised his behavior.  Interestingly enough, he got public support even from the rather anti-Royalist Basque nationalists (i.e., among people who normally justify burning of his portraits, etc.).

2. The King got a rather wide support within Latin America. Carlos Fuentes, a leading Mexican left-wing writer and intellectual has said at a press conference in Buenos Aires: "it was right time that somebody said this to Chavez, and I am very happy it was the King". Actually, to the best of my knowledge no major Mexican public figure has openly disagreed: not surprizing, given that in Mexico Chavez is not viewed so much as a "leftist" political figure, but as, first and foremost, an "Anti-Mexican" one (his potential supporters prefer never to mention his name, lest they be linked to him). Things vary within Latin America, of course, but I would conjecture, the majority reaction in the region varies between "sorry it had to go that far, but the King had no choice, Chavez forced him" to "Long Live the King".

3. The King has publically said that he is unhappy about what has happened. Still, there is a public consensus in Spain that there is no need to apologize. The King's popularity has gone sharply up (from its already stratospheric levels) since the incident.  

To sum up: the most Chavez can expect as a matter of public appology is what has been already offered: "we are sorry that you forced us to do this unfortunate thing".

[ag]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

Chavez is not a Communist.  He is a Mussolini-style fascist.

Explain his social justice rhetoric then.

Mussolini wasn't without that either.  Hey, remeber that Hitler's party was called the National Sociallist Workers' Party of Germany.

[ag]

Now the bastard is demanding an apology.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311720,00.html

OH NOES TEH NERVE!

Why do you love communist dictators who are increasingly oppressive towards their people?

ignoring the fact that your uncreative epithets are inaccurate, you completely misinterpreted my post.  I'm wondering why so many people seem to care so much about this meaningless story.  probably because the media has taught people to hate Chavez while ignoring Karimov and etc.

Let me propose four reasons:

1. Nobody admires Karimov (ok, maybe his wife does   ). So, there is a consensus that he is a SOB.  And Karimov is not trying to be on TV outside of his home country 370 days a year. And who (outside Uzbekistan and, possibly, Tajikistan) cares about Uzbekistan, anyway.  So, clearly, not enough interest.

2. Nobody (important) has had the balls to tell Karimov to shut up publically.

3. His Majesty is very popular and highly admired.

4. You don't here HM telling somebody to shut up often.

Karimov is only screwing his own country and a couple of even poorer and more insignificant neighbours in the middle of nowhere.  He has no pretensions to being an international superstar. If Chavez restricted himself to quietly screwing his own country, Nicaragua and Ecuador people wouldn't bother much either.