Portugal fumes at Chavez campaign poster
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-09-29 09:35
LISBON - Portugal demanded on Thursday an explanation from Venezuela for
President Hugo Chavez using a picture of himself with Portuguese Prime Minister
Jose Socrates in a campaign poster.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (C)
greets supporters from a bus during his re-election campaign rally in La
Guaira, 30 km (19 miles) from Caracas, September 26, 2006. Chavez will run
for re-election in the December polls.
[Reuters] |
The poster shows Chavez and Socrates smiling politely at each other in the
VIP lounge at Lisbon airport.
"Breaking the blockade. Venezuela respects itself," reads the poster. There
is a 800,000-strong Portuguese community in Venezuela and Chavez is campaigning
ahead of December 3 presidential elections.
"We have asked the ambassador of Venezuela for an explanation and showed our
dissatisfaction regarding the improper use of the image," Cabinet Minister Pedro
Silva Pereira told reporters after the Portuguese cabinet's weekly meeting.
The picture was taken three months ago when Chavez briefly met Socrates at
Lisbon's airport while on his way to Russia.
Other campaign posters include Chavez with Cuban President Fidel Castro and
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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