The phrase "Porque no te callas?" (Why don’t you shut up?) became an overnight sensation as uttered by King Juan Carlos I of Spain to the controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile last November.The phrase spread on people’s computers and in mobile-phone ringtones. However, there was more behind the arguing and fighting before it became an edited, sensational audio clip. To understand the Spanish monarch’s famous comment, we must go back in time.
Of course there is no need to go back 500 years, when in the name of the Spanish crown people were massacred in what is now the European continent. There is also no point in remembering the hundreds of boats that came to the Americas with soldiers, arms and explorers. The boats returned loaded with gold, silver and other goods in exchange for nothing. In other words, they were carrying stolen cargo.
It’s also pointless to mention that none of it was given back. Media analysts will probably skip the hundreds of years of "evangelization" of the "wild indigenous people," as more than one king has categorized them.
In reality, the issue is about privatization. About the new model of colonialism that has extended itself from the late 1980s until today. Juan Carlos’ interests essentially include the interests of the crown and of Spain, which is why he attended the meeting in the first place.
Among these, they also included the interests of many important Spanish enterprises such as, Repsol, Union FENOSA, Telefonica, Ence, el BBVA, Endesa, Iberdrola. Ironically these shares were eradicated in Latin America, yet the king has big juicy shares with the Spanish state.
It is also significant to mention that the Spanish enterprises have exhibited, and continue to exhibit, deplorable conduct. They have destroyed, without care, natural resources in sensible areas, expelled indigenous communities in their territories and contaminated the water, air and soil of Latin American societies.
These businesses send home huge profits without realizing they compromised themselves with their investments.
They pressure Latin American governments with the ends of getting "better" laws to their benefits that are a loss for the Latin Americans. So when Latin America stands against neo-colonialism and starts to yell to let the world know what is going on, to reclaim just treatment in the voice of the president of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and others, this goes against the interest of the great king that has come to defend them.
That is why when Chavez talked like an equal among his equals, the king, thinking that Latin America is still a colony and he still has power over the free continent, thought of keeping him quiet. But ultimately, Chavez was defending his peoples’ rights, land, rivers, forests and mountains, but most importantly he was defending their liberty and sovereignty.
