Venezuela's Chavez wraps up European swing with hug-and-make-up visit to Spain

Hugo Chavez was on a hug-and-make-up visit to Spain on Friday, his first since a now-infamous exchange in which Spain's normally reserved monarch told the voluble Venezuelan leader to "shut up" at a summit in Chile last year. Chavez was meeting for breakfast with Spanish King Juan Carlos at the king's summer house on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, then flying to Madrid for talks with Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in the afternoon. Officially, the trip is being billed as an opportunity to discuss bilateral relations — but the agenda will also undoubtedly include at least some awkward references to last year's high-level diplomatic dustup. In a television address to his countrymen last week, Chavez said he was ready to let bygones be bygones — but also joked that the king ought to know it is not in his... [read full story]