BOLIVIA: Newly elected Bolivian President Evo Morales was easy target when he fell for local Bolivian radio station's prank

Record ID: 691808

  • Title: BOLIVIA: Newly elected Bolivian President Evo Morales was easy target when he fell for local Bolivian radio station's prank
  • Date: 23rd December 2005
  • Summary: SLV BOLIVIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / GOVERNMENT BADGE 2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 7th January 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAC2UX2HIU5WON6DJRYTQDKXCMQ
  • Story Text: Bolivia's Foreign Minister Armando Loayza met with Spanish Ambassador to Bolivia Francisco Montalvan in La Paz on Thursday (December 22) to try and smooth over the damage caused by a prank call made by a Spanish radio station to the South American country's newly elected president. The incident occurred when Bolivia's president elect Evo Morales' announced that Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero had telephoned to congratulate him on winning last weekend's election. Then it transpired that it was a comic from a morning radio show who had telephoned Morales pretending to be Zapatero. National radio station La Cope admitted on Wednesday (December 21) that it was behind the incident, intended to ridicule the leftist Bolivian leader. The Spanish authorities presented a letter to Loayza apologizing for the incident. "(The letter) manifests in an express manner its regret, upset and surprise by this attitude by a private press media, that certainly implies an offence to the investiture of the future president Evo Morales," the Bolivian Foreign Minister told the press. La Cope, a right-wing radio station owned by Spain's Conference of Bishops, said Morales had reminded "Zapatero" of the Socialist government's promise to double economic aid to the Latin American country. The spoof Zapatero also invited Morales to make Spain the subject of his first foreign visit. Spain's Ambassador to Bolivia said that the Spanish government had already apologized by phone to the Bolivian president elect. "I want to say that the president elect Evo Morales also received apologetic phone calls from the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and from the Spanish government Jose Luis Rodrguez Zapatero. I think that the situation is cleared up. Undoubtedly there remains a sour taste," said Montalvan. Montalvan also announced that the Papal Nuncio in Spain had been summoned to meet with the Spanish Foreign Minister, given the church's involvement in the radio station. "The incident is absolutely unacceptable. Foreign Minister Moratinos has called a meeting with the Papal Nuncio in Spain," said Montalvan. Leftist Evo Morales, a former coca leaf farmer who says he is a "nightmare for the U.S.," won Bolivia's presidential elections on Sunday (December 18). An Aymara Indian, Morales pledges to legalize coca growing for traditional uses such as tea and nationalize the country's vast natural gas resources.
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