Spanish radio’s apology ends row over spoof call

MADRID (Reuters) – A church-controlled radio station
apologized on Friday for a stunt in which a radio comic posing
as Spain’s prime minister called Bolivia’s future president,
sparking a row involving Spain, Bolivia and the Vatican.

Spain and Bolivia accepted the apology by Cope radio, whose
comic, pretending to be Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero, telephoned Evo Morales and implied that Bolivia and
Spain would join a left-wing axis involving Cuba and Venezuela.

“We are sincerely happy that you are triumphantly joining
the new order that we wish to set up in Spain and Latin
America, Evo,” the spoof Zapatero said, after congratulating
Morales on winning last weekend’s Bolivian election.

Cope, owned by the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, is strongly
critical of the policies of Spain’s Socialist government.

During the six-minute conversation, later broadcast on
Cope, the fake Zapatero also invited Morales to Spain.

When Morales said he had received many congratulatory phone
calls, the fake Zapatero said he imagined he had not been
called by U.S. President George W. Bush.

“He hasn’t called me yet either, and I’ve been in office
two years,” the fake Zapatero added.

Zapatero angered Washington by pulling Spanish troops out
of Iraq immediately after taking office in 2004 and, more
recently, by selling $2 billion of planes and ships to
Venezuela.

The hoax phone call angered the Bolivian and Spanish
governments and revived tension between Spain and the Catholic
church, which has sharply criticized Madrid for policies such
as legalizing gay marriage.

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, going over
the heads of the Catholic bishops who own the radio station,
called in the Vatican’s envoy to Spain on Thursday and asking
him to prevent anything similar happening again.

Spain formally apologized to the Bolivian government over
the incident on Thursday.

Cope, bowing to demands from Spain and Bolivia, issued a
second statement on Friday apologizing “to the people and
institutions affected.”

“The board of this station wishes to clarify that it has
never been its intention to lack respect for the
president-elect of Bolivia, nor hinder the normal development
of the international relations of our country,” it said.

“The Bolivian government is satisfied with this apology,”
Alvaro del Pozo, charge d’affaires at the Bolivian embassy in
Madrid, told Reuters.

Cope issued a statement on Thursday regretting the
annoyance it had caused, but the Bolivian embassy said this did
not go far enough and demanded a clear apology to Bolivia and
Morales, according to Spanish press reports.

The Spanish government declared that, following Cope’s
apology, it considered the incident closed.