The Venezuelan Viewpoint

Thanks to Barcepundit, I found this Venezuelan viewpoint of the Zapatero visit. Complaining that Spain is being Mercantilist, members of the Venezuelan opposition had this to say:

Those who decided among the Venezuelan opposition to meet with Zapatero delivered a very critical note reminding that Spaniard socialist are supposed to be peaceniks and not practicers of "realpolitik"

Another commenter who was unable to understand how the Spanish of all people can fail to spot a Fascist made this observation.

Chavez is a soldier at war with past demons, whose solution to oligarchy is military nationalism plus failed socialism in the name of Simon Bolivar. The Chavez 'solution' for the 21st century is the most glaring failure of the 20th century: Nazism.

Finally, Spain is a country in search of a role in the world, but under its current Prime Minister seems to be taking all the wrong turns.

It will be interesting to observe how the role of Spain will evolve within Europe as Zapatero is outdoing the French in "autonomy" with even less results than these ones. Will Venezuela become to Spain what Iraq has been to France?

Whether or not this is the case, no-one can claim that Europe has an ethical arms trade policy.