Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ramped up his verbal artillery yesterday saying US President Barack Obama should not follow the example of Spain’s King Juan Carlos who told him to shut up during a 2007 summit.

’We are ready to attend the meeting of the Americas and let’s hope that the US President comes and not follow the example of the King of Spain when he told me to shut up, because we are going to speak our truth,’ said President Chavez.

The Venezuela leader made the remark during a brief chat with reporters in Cumana, Venezuela as he prepared to greet several heads of state attending the Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, known by its Spanish initials as ALBA. Cumana is located approximately 380 kilometres west of Trinidad.

Chavez was referring to the closing ceremony of the 2007 Ibero-American Summit in Chile when the Spanish monarch reprimanded him saying, ’why don’t you shut up!’ after the Venezuelan president repeatedly referred to former Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, as a fascist.

Chavez said he planned attending a meeting between President Obama and 11 presidents grouped in the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas. Obama had requested the meeting.

The Venezuelan president is hosting the ALBA Summit which is being attended by presidents of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The leaders are expected to shape a common position at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain. One such common stance is a call for an end to the US trade blockade of Cuba and the return of Cuba to the Inter-American system.

Chavez said the ALBA meeting ’is very opportune’ since it comes before the Summit of the Americas and ’because it will allow us to fine tune ALBA’s artillery.’

’We do not have great expectations in the Summit of the Americas. There is a (draft) declaration that is difficult to assimilate. It is totally dislocated in time and space, as if time had not passed,’ said Chavez, adding that the document was similar to declarations at previous summits.

He said Venezuela will reject the draft declaration and ’along with other countries, we say that we are not in agreement with that declaration.’

Under Venezuelan leadership, ALBA was formed in 2004 as an alternative initiative to the stalled US-endorsed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). ALBA member countries include Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

ALBA member countries have taken significant steps to consolidate the group’s objective as a viable integration alternative based on solidarity, equality, and political, economic and social co-operation.

Since its inception, ALBA has established a regional ALBA bank and approved the creation of the Caracas-based Permanent ALBA Commission to monitor integration projects that have been approved at presidential and ministerial summits.

Discussions at the Cumana Summit was expected to address the creation of a single regional currency, to be called the ’sucre’.

The ALBA Summit began yesterday following the arrival of Cuban President Raul Castro and other heads of state who were invited guests including Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.

Following their talks in Cumana, the leaders will travel to Port of Spain for the Summit of the Americas which begins today.