Tonto Morales

Evo Morales is rapidly showing himself to be a rube. He's joined the tonto club alongside fidel castro and Hugo Chavez, who once tangled with a Miami deejay. Apparently, you have to be Marxist, arrogant, stupid and full of yourself to get such an honor. It didn't take long for Morales.

This time a Spanish deejay, pretending to be Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the pinhead prime minister of Spain, managed to call Morales and invite him to Spain and Morales believed it. Spain denied it, and Morales wondered what the deal was. Morales is apparently going to be easy for Chavez and castro and anyone else to jerk around. He better wise up fast or Tonto will be his real name by the time he's overthrown.

The EFE story is here:

Zapatero congratulates Morales, says prank "unacceptable"

Madrid, Dec 21 (EFE).- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales to congratulate him on his election and wish him the best, government sources told EFE.

The telephone conversation was cordial, and in the course of it Rodriguez Zapatero told Morales that the call he received from an impersonator on a show on Spain's COPE radio was an "unacceptable" prank.

The radio network itself admitted one of its staff had pulled the stunt.

The Bolivian Embassy in Spain lodged a formal complaint against the station, saying it had "exceeded the limits of humor" and become "an offense" on the Bolivian people. It also asked Spain's Foreign Ministry to "take the proper steps to make reparation" for the prank. The Ministry said it was "in total agreement" with the embassy's request that COPE apologize and, according to diplomatic sources, is looking into how it can help the embassy with the matter.

Morales was the object of a radio prank by a Spanish broadcaster who telephoned the president-elect and impersonated Spain's prime minister, a "joke" that put the winner of last weekend's election in an awkward spot.

The Bolivian president-elect found himself in something of a quandary Tuesday after saying that Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero telephoned to congratulate him on his election victory and to invite him to Spain, then seeing that claim denied by officials in Madrid.

Rodriguez Zapatero did not engage in any telephone conversation with Morales, Spanish government officials said soon after Morales made the claim in Bolivia.
The matter was cleared up Wednesday when Spain's COPE radio network acknowledged that one of the members of its "Grupo Risa" (Laugh Group) show had carried out the prank.

In a communique, COPE downplayed the seriousness of the incident, describing it as "just another joke" by Grupo Risa. It did not offer an apology.

The station's managers said Morales was overly credulous, and that there were sufficient "hints" in the exchange for him to have realized that it was a joke.
Morales, a Socialist like the Spanish premier, told a press conference Tuesday that Zapatero had called him to say he was "very pleased" by the leftist's win on Sunday.

The future Bolivian president remarked that Zapatero invited him to travel to Spain "as soon as possible." Morales also said he invited the Spanish leader to his Jan. 22 inauguration. EFE nac/dgm-mp

UPDATE: The radio station has since apologized. What is vivid is that it was owned by the Catholic Church! The story is here.

UPDATE: Miguel Buitrago at MABB has much more interesting background here.

UPDATE: Eduardo Avila at Barrio Flores has the whole MP3 transcript (and a link to the live version) written out here.

Posted by Mora at December 21, 2005 06:43 PM

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Comments

Posted by: mnghd at December 21, 2005 09:33 PM

Posted by: Isaac at December 21, 2005 11:33 PM

Posted by: Alberto Quiroga at December 22, 2005 08:04 AM

Posted by: A.M. Mora y Leon at December 23, 2005 02:55 PM