What's The Deal Between Chavez and Merkel?

TVNZ ^ | May 12, 2008 12:02 PM | Reuters

[KarenMarie]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez almost told German Chancellor Angela Merkel to go to hell, but stopped short of insulting the woman leader on Mother's Day.

Instead he called her a political descendant of Adolf Hitler and German fascism.

"Ms Chancellor, you can go to...," he said, pausing for effect and eliciting giggles from the audience, a group of military officers, cabinet ministers and government officials. "Because she's a woman I won't say anything else."

The leftist leader, who famously called US President George Bush the devil at a United Nations assembly, slammed Merkel for calling on Latin American leaders to distance themselves from Chavez.

"She is from the German right, the same that supported Hitler, that supported fascism, that's the Chancellor of Germany today," he said.

Chavez said he could confront her about the statements if he attends an upcoming summit of heads of state from Europe and Latin America in Peru.

"Maybe I'll say something to her and she'll get mad and say 'why don't you shut up?'" he said, referencing Spanish King Juan Carlos' 2007 admonition of the loquacious Chavez that touched off a bilateral dispute with Spain.

Chavez on Sunday called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a liar who shouldn't even run a corner store.

In the past, he has called US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld one of the dogs of the devil and then-President of Mexico Vicente Fox the lap-dog of the empire.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1776063

Source: Reuters

[KarenMarie]

Ok, What is the deal here?

I am not aware that Chavez had a problem with Merkel. Is there a back story or history?

I googled : ... Chavez Merkel and Chavez Germany ... and came up with nothing to explain this. (I also searched here and came up with nothing).

So I ask you, my intelligent Freepers, what is the deal here?

Thanks in advance