Serene Assir reviews this week's Spanish language press -- both Spain's and Latin America's -- on Evo Morales'svisit to Spain, and on his search for allies Following a meeting on 4 January between Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Bolivian President- elect Evo Morales, the Spanish press was filled with reports of the apparently positive results. The main focus of the press was the lifting of, according to El Pais, a "substantial proportion" of Bolivian debt to Spain, which is to be converted into 100 million euros in education plans. That said, of course, the new outspoken Bolivian leader promised, according to the lead story in the mainstream Spanish paper, "judicial security to Spanish firms" working in Bolivia. Perhaps one of the photographs to be given most prominence in the Spanish press was that of Morales seated next to Antonio Brufau, president of Spanish oil and gas company Repsol at a lunch in Madrid. Repsol constitutes one of Spain's most powerful companies, and controls about half of Bolivia's production of natural gas. Prior to Morales' visit, according to La Vanguardia, Spanish companies "got scared, but did not panic" following the Bolivian's victory at the polls. At the fateful business lunch in Madrid, "the president-elect insisted on his strategy of the nationalisation of Bolivia's natural resources," according to El Mundo. "However, Morales told businessmen what he had previously told reporters at the presidential palace: although the government will exercise its right to property, it will neither expropriate nor confiscate." Similarly the Bolivian press was full of praise for Morales' decision to enter his presidential term as diplomatically -- in terms of the international community -- as possible. One Bolivian daily, El Periodico, ran an editorial by Antoni Gutierrez-Rubi, focussing on what the journalist viewed as a diplomatic triumph by Morales on the president-elect's choice of clothing. "Some see in the president's colourful jumper ( chompa in Latin America) an inadequate protocol, a populist gesture or, simply, an extreme coherent with his own personal journey," he writes. "But there is more. Morales has found an alternative to Castro's over-used uniform and Chavez's wide-cut suits. His chompa symbolises his indigenous, democratic and national pride." Interestingly enough, he also contrasts Morales' style with that of Brazilian President Lula da Silva, whose "tie", the journalist implies, signified his succumbing to the current international economic order. El Nuevo Dia, also a Bolivian daily, ran a story on Spain's reactions to Morales' visit -- highlighting the perception of the president-elect as "humble" -- as the most prominent. "He did not offend anyone with his remarks," the report reads, "but he did say what we all know: that the majority of Bolivians have spent centuries waiting for justice." The story also highlights that despite the apparent successes, Morales also became "the subject of ridicule among some of the media," namely because of his announced friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Indeed, such is the divide between the right and Morales that Mariano Rajoy, head of the rightist and main opposition group the Popular Party, refused to meet him while he was in Madrid. According to El Pais, Rajoy had previously described Morales to Zapatero as "a complete fool", and warned him that he was "dangerous". Spain's traditionally rightist daily ABC ran a strongly-worded editorial by Carlos Alberto Montaner entitled "Bad news for Spain". In references to the depiction of the Sicilian mafia in The Godfather, the author describes Castro as Morales' " consiglieri " and Chavez as his "godfather". And despite the smiles that Morales, elite Spanish businessmen and Zapatero sported in pictures in much of the press, Montaner insists that "Morales' election constitutes as much bad business for Spain as it does for the United States." He also brazenly writes of the Latin American "wave of neo-populism", and sarcastically writes off "that old and failed world" of revolutionism.
