Chávez blasts Fox
CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez called his Mexican counterpart a ''puppy of the empire'' for supporting a Washington-backed free-trade zone at the Summit of the Americas.
Mexico reacted by calling in the Venezuelan ambassador, Vladimir Villegas Poljak, to explain Chávez's remarks.
''How sad that the president of a great country like Mexico allowed himself to be the puppy of the empire,'' Chávez said Wednesday evening in his first public speech since returning from the 34-nation summit in Argentina.
The barb comes after Mexican President Vicente Fox, apparently irked by Chávez's strident calls against the trade pact, said in comments to news media after the summit, ``there we have some presidents, fortunately a minority, who blame other countries for all their problems.''
Fox, a staunch supporter of the trade zone, also criticized Argentine President Néstor Kirchner, for failing to support the pact.
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Rodriguez, the Venezuelan foreign minister, said Monday that his government in recent days had "waited patiently for some kind of positive explanation from President Fox" about his public criticism of Chavez. When no explanation was forthcoming, Rodriguez said, "the necessary step was taken."
Chavez last week called Fox a U.S. "lapdog" working in favor of Washington's "imperialism."
The Caracas daily Tal Cual, a frequent critic of the Venezuelan leader, published a cover illustration Monday of Chavez drawing a pair of six-shooters. "Looking for a Fight," the headline said.
"This wouldn't have happened if Fox had been more diplomatic and hadn't said what he thought," said Rafael Fernandez de Castro, a leading analyst of Mexican foreign policy in Mexico City. "Fox threw a stone and Chavez replied with a brick," Fernandez said. "Chavez is thrilled. The more the problem escalates, the happier he is." .....***