The Spanish king (top) shouts at Chavez (below) during the summit. (AFP and Reuters)

Santiago, Nov. 11 (Reuters): Spain’s King Juan Carlostold Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez yesterday to “shut up” during closing speeches by leaders from the Latin world and brought the Ibero-American summit to an acrimonious end.

“Why don’t you shut up?” the king shouted at Chavez, pointing a finger at the President when he tried to interrupt a speech by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Zapatero was in the middle of a speech at the summit of mostly leftist leaders from Latin America, Portugal, Spain and Andorra, and was criticising Chavez for calling former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a fascist.

Chavez, a leading Left foe of Washington, also attacked Spanish businessman Gerardo Diaz Ferran earlier in the week after he questioned the safety of foreign investments in Venezuela.

Chavez, a former soldier, is well-known for fiery speeches laden with rhetoric, bravado and insults — often aimed at the administration of President George W. Bush.

In the past, he has called Bush a “donkey”, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice an “illiterate” and former Mexican President Vicente Fox a “lapdog of imperialism”.

Referring to Aznar on Friday, Chavez said: “That former Spanish President... was a true fascist, a true fascist.”

The Spanish delegation was not impressed.

“I want to express to you President Hugo Chavez that in a forum where there are democratic governments... one of the essential principles is respect,” Zapatero said sternly, drawing applause from some of the other heads of state.

“We should be careful not to fall into insults,” Zapatero said, noting the ideological differences he himself had with his conservative predecessor.

Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.

The Spanish king, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said: “Why don’t you shut up?”

The Venezuelan leader did not immediately respond, but later used time ceded to him by his close ally Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to answer Zapatero’s speech.

“I do not offend by telling the truth,” he said. “The Venezuelan government reserves the right to respond to any aggression, anywhere, in any space and in any tone.”

In subsequent comments reported on the website of Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Chavez said: “I speak the truth to kings, to imperialists, to Bush.”

Chavez said the Spanish had come out of the verbal spat looking bad. “The one who looked bad there was the one who lost control, who told us to shut up as if we were still subjects from the 17th, 18th centuries,” he told reporters.

At home, Chavez is facing demonstrations by tens of thousands of university students opposed to proposed constitutional reforms that would expand his power. Chavez, however, still maintains broad popular support.

Chavez, who has used his country’s oil wealth to spre- ad his self-styled socialist revolution, made his mark on the three-day summit from the start, announcing his arrival earlier in the week with defiant lyrics from a Mexican ballad.

While most heads of state were due to leave Chile yesterday, Chavez joined some of South America’s most left-leaning leaders at a rally of about 3,000 people gather- ed for a “People’s Summit” in a Santiago stadium.