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Chávez tells Blair "váyase largo al cipote"
When Tony Blair left the Commons chamber after question time, he probably thought David Cameron's accusation that he was "flip-flopping" over school reform was the worst verbal jab he would face this week.
Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, had other ideas. In a characteristically forthright tirade, he described the prime minister as "a pawn of imperialism" and told him to "go right to hell".
Mr Chávez was inveighing against comments on Venezuela's attitude to democracy made by Mr Blair in the chamber. The prime minister's observation that Venezuela should abide by the rules of the international community if it wanted to be respected by it showed that he believed "we're still in times of imperialism and colonialism", Mr Chávez said.
"Go right to hell, Mr Blair," he told the prime minister during a speech in western Venezuela, using local slang to deliver the line. His exact words, "váyase largo al cipote", have no direct translation into English.
Mr Chávez described Mr Blair as "the main ally of Hitler" - an accusation that he is siding with the US president in its confrontation with Venezuela. Mr Chávez has taken to calling George Bush "Mr Danger" and "Danger Bush Hitler" among other epithets, and added that he would now need similar nicknames for Mr Blair.
"You messed with me, so put up with me," he told the prime minister. Quoting the lyrics of a Venuezuelan folk song that he also recited when he called Mexico's president Vicente Fox a "lapdog" of the United States, he added: "I sting those who rattle me, Mr Blair".
Relations between the Venezuela and US, whose lead Mr Chávez accused Mr Blair of following, are at their lowest point for several years after the two governments expelled each other's diplomats in a spying row last week.
The barney started when Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, compared Mr Chávez to Adolf Hitler. Speaking at a mass rally on Saturday commemorating the failed 1992 coup that he led as a lieutenant colonel, Mr Chávez then remarked that the Nazi leader "would be like a suckling baby next to George W Bush".
Venezuela, which supplies 15% of the US's foreign oil, has previously attempted to rattle Washington by offering humanitarian aid to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and cheap heating oil to residents of Massachusetts, and forging relations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran and Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The spark for his attack on Mr Blair was a question from Labour MP Colin Burgon on whether British policy in South America was shaped by a "rightwing US Republican agenda". The prime minister replied that Venezuela needed to take care when it formed a close alliance with a non-democracy such as Cuba.
"If they want to be respected members of the international community, they should abide by the rules of the international community," he told MPs. "I say with the greatest respect to the president of Venezuela that when he forms an alliance with Cuba, I would prefer to see Cuba a proper functioning democracy."
Mr Chávez said the remarks showed Mr Blair was "nothing but a pawn of imperialism trying now to attack us from Europe". He added that Mr Blair lacked the moral standing to make them.
"You, Mr Blair, do not have the morality to call on anyone to respect the rules of the international community," he said. "You are precisely the one who has flouted international law the most [...] siding with Mr Danger to trample the people in Iraq.
"I'm going to be closely watching what you say and what you do. Because the British government has no moral standing - and even less yourself - to get involved in Venezuela's affairs."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mr Chávez was "entitled to his views".
The president came to prominence in a failed coup attempt in 1992 but won a democratic election in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1706206,00.html
Mr Chávez was inveighing against comments on Venezuela's attitude to democracy made by Mr Blair in the chamber. The prime minister's observation that Venezuela should abide by the rules of the international community if it wanted to be respected by it showed that he believed "we're still in times of imperialism and colonialism", Mr Chávez said.
"Go right to hell, Mr Blair," he told the prime minister during a speech in western Venezuela, using local slang to deliver the line. His exact words, "váyase largo al cipote", have no direct translation into English.
Mr Chávez described Mr Blair as "the main ally of Hitler" - an accusation that he is siding with the US president in its confrontation with Venezuela. Mr Chávez has taken to calling George Bush "Mr Danger" and "Danger Bush Hitler" among other epithets, and added that he would now need similar nicknames for Mr Blair.
"You messed with me, so put up with me," he told the prime minister. Quoting the lyrics of a Venuezuelan folk song that he also recited when he called Mexico's president Vicente Fox a "lapdog" of the United States, he added: "I sting those who rattle me, Mr Blair".
Relations between the Venezuela and US, whose lead Mr Chávez accused Mr Blair of following, are at their lowest point for several years after the two governments expelled each other's diplomats in a spying row last week.
The barney started when Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, compared Mr Chávez to Adolf Hitler. Speaking at a mass rally on Saturday commemorating the failed 1992 coup that he led as a lieutenant colonel, Mr Chávez then remarked that the Nazi leader "would be like a suckling baby next to George W Bush".
Venezuela, which supplies 15% of the US's foreign oil, has previously attempted to rattle Washington by offering humanitarian aid to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina and cheap heating oil to residents of Massachusetts, and forging relations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran and Fidel Castro's Cuba.
The spark for his attack on Mr Blair was a question from Labour MP Colin Burgon on whether British policy in South America was shaped by a "rightwing US Republican agenda". The prime minister replied that Venezuela needed to take care when it formed a close alliance with a non-democracy such as Cuba.
"If they want to be respected members of the international community, they should abide by the rules of the international community," he told MPs. "I say with the greatest respect to the president of Venezuela that when he forms an alliance with Cuba, I would prefer to see Cuba a proper functioning democracy."
Mr Chávez said the remarks showed Mr Blair was "nothing but a pawn of imperialism trying now to attack us from Europe". He added that Mr Blair lacked the moral standing to make them.
"You, Mr Blair, do not have the morality to call on anyone to respect the rules of the international community," he said. "You are precisely the one who has flouted international law the most [...] siding with Mr Danger to trample the people in Iraq.
"I'm going to be closely watching what you say and what you do. Because the British government has no moral standing - and even less yourself - to get involved in Venezuela's affairs."
A Downing Street spokeswoman said Mr Chávez was "entitled to his views".
The president came to prominence in a failed coup attempt in 1992 but won a democratic election in 1998 and was re-elected in 2000.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,1706206,00.html
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It is normal in diplomacy for words to assume a level of meaning rather different to that understood by the man in the street. A "full and frank discussion" is, for example, something closer to a flaming row. The difference with Mr Chavez's words is that the closer you are to the Venezuelan street, the more likely you are to understand them.
"Vayase" means go, and "largo" a long way - that much is straightforward. "Cipote" is rather more difficult. Native speakers of Castillian Spanish we consulted had never heard of the phrase but advised that "cipote" could refer to the male genitalia, or at least a part of it. To confuse matters, one suggested it could be a slang word for anus in South American usage.
We were getting the general sense but not quite the level of offensiveness. A colleague who spent six years as a reporter in neighbouring Colombia then offered his expertise. He had never encountered the phrase either, but by consulting the extensive online dictionary of the Real Academia Espanola (yes, part of this job does involve looking up rude words in dictionaries), he put it somewhere between "get stuffed" and a rather more vehement expletive ending in "off".
The jibe at Mr Blair - prompted by him telling the Commons that Venezuela should abide by the rules of the international community - seemed to pose similar problems for others trying to report it. The Reuters news agency, whose translation we followed, had Mr Chavez telling the prime minister to "Go right to hell" but "using local slang that is more vulgar". The Spanish version had to translate too, adding the word "diablo" (devil) so readers who did not understand "cipote" would get the pitch of going to hell.
Mr Chavez is not usually so hard to understand. Some of his recent barbs aimed at George Bush were in English, even when he was addressing a Spanish-speaking audience. He calls him "Danger Bush Hitler" and "Mr Danger". "Asesino número uno del planeta" is also not so difficult.
He explained that he would now need some nicknames for the prime minister: "I sting those who rattle me, Mr Blair". We wait to see if we will understand them.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2006/02/09/lost_in_translation.html
On the other hand, Mr. BLiar could fittingly be described as the "running dog" of the U.S. Evil Empire, headed by the Bushwhacked C.C.C.C.(Clueless Chickenhawk Chief from Crawford)!
There is no question that Chávez was trying to humiliate Blair, and the use of such language is absolutely inappropriate in the language of diplomacy. BUT Chávez, as he himself would tell you, was raised bathing in the mud with the pigs. You would never expect such person to keep protocol.
Chávez is desperate as his government falls to pieces, precisely because he lacks the intellect to run a street vending stand in the local market, let alone a country. Venezuelas were taken by his charm that is long gone, and seduced by his unsofisticated style. They have already paid with 7 years of decay.