Spain's king to Chavez: 'Just shut up'

Spain's King Juan Carlos won praise back home on Sunday after telling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "just shut up" before storming out of an Ibero-American summit.

Spain's monarch was applauded by Spanish media for his angry reprimand Saturday of Chavez, after the Venezuelan leader described a former Spanish prime minister as a "fascist" and launched into a wide-ranging tirade.

"The king has put Chavez in his place in the name of all Spaniards," the centrist El Mundo newspaper said, noting that it was "an act without precedence."

It said the monarch's rebuke was "something that should have been said to him (Chavez) a long time ago."

The Venezuelan president responded Sunday by challenging the king, asking if he had advance knowledge of a failed coup against Chavez in 2002.

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