When I lived in and wrote from Spain between May 1975 and December 1978, I had the supreme pleasure of a lifetime, to live in a wonderful country that, before my astounded journalistic eyes, made a peaceful “evolution without revolution” transition to democracy from the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

And most Spaniards agreed there was one seemingly-quiet and above-the-fray man who had the guts to help make it happen — perhaps more than anyone else.

To this day, he still doesn’t get the credit that so many Spanish journalists and foreign diplomats (who would talk about it privately from 1975-1978) gave him. He navigated his country, and what some felt was a reluctant and potentially resistant military, through the dangers of shifting a nation and its establishment towards democratic elections and to until-then-taboo more relaxed social values.

And the bottom line is that King Juan Carlos, handpicked by Franco (who was widely believed to have thought KJC would be pliable to the kind of establishment he had in place when he was living) risked it all. He stood at the middle of an incredibly-dramatic and dangerous period of democratic evolution and never blinked in the face of rightist and leftist resistance (sometimes manifesting itself in sporadic violent acts).

When I was there everyone knew that the easiest way to halt the democratic evolution would have been for someone to rub “El Rey” out.

But the King was a toughie. He persisted, and democratic Spain had a man on the inside who could have resisted the change but instead quietly did what he could do to encourage and consolidate it.

And now, at a time when some eyebrows are being raised about the monarchy in Spain, there’s this report that shows his low tolerance for polarizing political polemics and his respect for Spanish politicians of various parties:

The Ibero-American summit ended on an unusually heated note Saturday, when an angry verbal spat culminated with the king of Spain telling Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to “shut up.”

Chavez, the outspoken leftist leader who called U.S. President George W. Bush the “devil” on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a “fascist.”

Aznar, a conservative and a close Bush ally who backed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, “is a fascist,” Chavez said in a speech to leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal. “Fascists are not human. A snake is more human.”

Spain’s current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.

“Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people,” he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.

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

Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, “Why don’t you shut up?”

And so, a new legend was born and a quote has emerged that’ll be used in all future bios of the Spanish King because it reveals a bit of his attitude: that he has tried to make his institution above the partisan political fray and isn’t a fan of political demonization.

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 manner.”

To no one’s surprise, Chavez’s comments were supported by….Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

According to one account, the King’s comment came amid Spain having a tough time at the conference:

Spain’s King Juan Carlos had never left a session at the Iberian American Summit early and annoyed, despite attending the gathering 16 times, but he did just that Saturday in Santiago, in a move that symbolizes the bad time Spain had at this year’s meeting.

First, talks broke down Friday in a bilateral conflict between Argentina and Uruguay - over the installation of a paper mill on the Uruguayan bank of a common river. Spain had been serving as a mediator in the conflict.

One day later as the summit came to a close, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got into a heated argument that led to Juan Carlos leaving the meeting.

The summit could have served as a break for Juan Carlos, after a complicated visit to Spain’s North African territories, Ceuta and Melilla, earlier this week and the resulting anger of Morocco.

But things turned out quite differently, when he got involved in the disagreement between Zapatero and Chavez. Juan Carlos, who is the only leader who has never missed an Iberian American summit since the gatherings started in 1991, showed his annoyance with Chavez and broke all protocol.

Chavez had been spicing up the summit since Friday, when he accused Spanish businessmen of having backed the 2002 coup against him in Venezuela, and Saturday included former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in the accusation.

Zapatero then told Chavez that a basic rule of public life is ‘to refer to others in a respectful way, even if they are one’s ideological opposites.’

That’s when Juan Carlos decided to verbally crown Chavez.

Meanwhile, the political context is also important: the King uttered the words many world leaders and Americans would like to say to Chavez at a time when his monarchy is under fire in some parts of Spain.

Another report frames the event like this:

The Spanish monarch lost his cool when Chávez called the ex Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar, a fascist on several occasions. King Juan Carlos then got up and walked out of the session in a gesture without precedent, and just in time to hear the Nicaraguan President, Daniel Ortega, criticising Spanish businesses and the role of Union Fenosa in Nicaragua in particular. The King was to return later, but was not present for the singing of the Chilean hymn which closed the debates.

And why shouldn’t the King have walked out?

After all, King Juan Carlos — far more than Chavez of Ortega — had lived among real fascists in what had been a fascist nation apparatus adapted by Franco to the General’s and his country’s own economic and cultural situations.

In the United States the phrase “fascist” is sometimes thrown around as easily as the verbal tic “well, ya know.”

But Juan Carlos KNOWS what REAL fascists were like.

And he sat there at the conference with his country’s Socialist Prime Minister and just decided he could hold his royal tongue no further.

And so, by leaving, he stood up and stuck up for the concept of democracy as being a system that respects differing views and doesn’t consider a party that is out of power to be the evil enemy.

It’s a story worth pondering by partisans in the United States as Americans head into what promises to be a bitter, divisive, demonizing election year.

FURTHER READING:

Time Magazine names Juan Carlos a hero.
How King Juan Carlos thwarted a 1981 coup
Britannica Concise bio
Protests Against The Monarchy In Spain (but he’s voted in TV poll as greatest Spaniard of all time).
Escuela bio
Oct. 30, 1975: King Juan Carlos Assumes power upon Franco’s final illness.
Time (1968) Juan Carlos To The Fore
THE POST-FRANCO ERA

(UPDATE) Here’s some other weblog reaction:

–A Newt One:

Kudos to the king of Spain. Evidently, the King of Spain does not worry about Political Correctness. I so truly wish and strongly desire that our politicos would have the moral courage to conduct themselves in the same manner.

–Barcepundit (who writes from Barcelona, Spain, is Spanish and offers editions of his blog in English and Spanish):

I’M NOT PRO-MONARCHY in the sense that I don’t believe that any office should be hereditary, including the head of state. But I can’t help but cheer on king Juan Carlos today…

--Say Anything:

I think I like this guy.

–Blue Crab Boulevard:

This is one of those stories that just make you grin. King Juan Carlos of Spain literally told the red-shirted dictator-to-be of Venezuela to ’shut up’ at a conference in Santiago, Chile…..About time somebody told Chavez that. I know absolutely nothing about the king, but he’s already on my good side for this one.

–Jammie Wearing Fool:

About time someone told this buffoon to dummy up. I only wish he took the time to slap him upside the head.