Tough crowd
Published: June 1 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: June 1 2004 5:00
Where would Latin American summits be without Hugo Chávez?
In January, he amused world leaders by failing to show up for scheduled bilateral meetings at the Summit of the Americas, held in Monterrey.
Back in Mexico last week for a summit with European Union leaders in Guadalajara, Venezuela's president found an intense diplomatic debate over the strength of the language they should use in the final communiqué to criticise US behaviour in Iraq.
Asked about George W. Bush in a press conference, he replied that the US president was a pendejo, translated literally as a "pubic hair" and colloquially as a "coward". Funnily enough, Chávez's word failed to make its way into the final communiqué.
Financial Times article
Published: June 1 2004 5:00 | Last Updated: June 1 2004 5:00
Where would Latin American summits be without Hugo Chávez?
In January, he amused world leaders by failing to show up for scheduled bilateral meetings at the Summit of the Americas, held in Monterrey.
Back in Mexico last week for a summit with European Union leaders in Guadalajara, Venezuela's president found an intense diplomatic debate over the strength of the language they should use in the final communiqué to criticise US behaviour in Iraq.
Asked about George W. Bush in a press conference, he replied that the US president was a pendejo, translated literally as a "pubic hair" and colloquially as a "coward". Funnily enough, Chávez's word failed to make its way into the final communiqué.
Hahaha.
We've gone through this before - what the word pendejo means - the first time it came up in a Chávez speech, they were saying it means "asshole", and there were some Chávez apologists who said it means "coward". I think he's using it purposely as a nice pun. (I Babel Fish translated it back then, and the translation returned was indeed "asshole". Which fits perfectly, if you ask me. Coward, too. It's the perfect descriptor.)
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
