MEXICO: Spain honours former Mexican President for help with former refugees; declares Chavez-King spat over

A Spanish official recognizes former Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas for his assistance in accepting hundreds of Spanish children fleeing the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. During the speech, Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, Trinidad Jimenez, also says her government considers the recent spat between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Spanish King Juan Carlos ended. A Spanish official presiding over a human rights ceremony in Mexico, declared on Tuesday (November 20) that her government considered the recent diplomatic spat between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the Spanish government ended. Spanish Secretary of State for Iberoamerica, Trinidad Jimenez, was in Mexico to recognize former Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas for his help in protecting Spanish children fleeing Spain during the Civil War in the 1930s. Cardenas died in 1970, but several of his relatives attended the ceremony. His wife, 95-year-old Amalia Solorzano, accepted "The Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos III", the most prestigious medal given by the Spanish government to civilians. But even in a speech honouring Cardenas, Jimenez addressed the current issue between Chavez and Spain, which has remained in the headlines recently. "We believe that when a verbal incident happens it must kept as that and not continue with an escalation of language that would not take us anywhere. The diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Spain are wide and important enough to maintain them just as well as they have been, and we don't have any interest in continuing these type of comments because the Spanish government considers this issue officially ended." Tension has been high between the two countries over the past two weeks since Spanish King Juan Carlos told Chavez to shut up during the Ibero-American Summit, where Chavez referred to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a fascist. The ceremony, however, quickly turned back to Cardenas and the former refugees. The Cardenas administration welcomed over 400 Spanish children who came to the Port of Veracruz in 1937. Many of them stayed in Mexico even after the Civil War ended. Today, the former refugees are well into their 70s and largely consider themselves both Mexican and Spanish. The Spanish Congress recently approved a new law guaranteeing grandchildren of the refugees Spanish nationality. "If Mexico makes us nationals of this country, why can't our sons and grandsons, principally, that are really the future of Mexico, receive Spanish Nationality? For them this means a new horizon, all of them are really well prepared," said Amparo Batanero, the head the Morelia Children's Association, an organization dedicated to the former Spanish refugees. Juan Job was only five years old when he came to Mexico. Today, the 75-year-old says he has tried to raise his children as good Mexican citizens. "We have sons and we love them and we had always struggled to make them good Mexicans, primarily, and then if they choose Spain, its ok for us because we have given them those ideas too. But first of all they ought to be good Mexican because we have lived here for 70 years and the government and the people of Mexico had given us the best. We go through the world without any kind of paper, like all Mexicans," he said. Dozens of the former refugees attended Tuesday's ceremony and gathered around Solorzano to thank her for her husband's assistance.

ITN Source | November 22, 2007

Tags:. .speech. .secretary. .ok. .themselves. .primarily