[Marxism] Venezuela's Chavez Gets Rock Star Welcome in Spain

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Venezuela's Chavez Gets Rock Star Welcome in Spain
By Estelle Shirbon

MADRID, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
received a rock star welcome in Spain on Sunday as he
opened a new chapter in bilateral relations that had cooled
under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's
predecessor.

Praising Spain's seven-month-old Socialist government
Chavez told reporters: "Spain has turned into a great hope
with the Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero's new direction
in foreign policy."

Chavez, a populist former paratrooper, was received at
Madrid's Barajas airport with military honours at the start
of a three-day visit.

He had accused Zapatero's conservative predecessor Jose
Maria Aznar of supporting a short-lived coup against him in
2002 and criticised his strong backing for the U.S.-led war
in Iraq.

Zapatero, who won a surprise election victory three days
after the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191
people, has shifted Spanish foreign policy away from
Aznar's strongly pro-U.S. focus, moving closer to France
and Germany.

He has also made good relations with Latin America a
priority.

Chavez, a left-winger who vows to fight poverty, presents
himself as a regional voice against U.S. economic
dominance.

Chavez's first act after arriving was to go to Madrid's
Atocha station, scene of two of the four train bombings on
March 11, to pay homage to the victims of the worst attacks
in modern Spanish history.

There he was mobbed by media and hundreds of supporters,
many waving Venezuelan flags and chanting "Chavez, friend,
the people are with you."

"Chavez is turning into a symbol of the struggle of the
peoples," said Carmen Ruiz, a middle-aged teacher waiting
for a glimpse of him.

Chavez, on the first leg of a trip that will also take him
to Russia, Libya and Iran, will meet Zapatero, business and
union leaders and talk to students during his visit to
Spain.

Chavez cancelled a trip to Costa Rica last Friday to attend
an Ibero-American summit after a prosecutor probing the
2002 coup was killed by a car bomb.

Spain is an important investor in energy-rich Venezuela,
with oil company Repsol set to invest more than 450 million
euros ($586 million) there between 2004 and 2008, according
to news reports. [Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta.]

(c) Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.



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