In October 2001, shortly following having reached the Presidency of Venezuela and without fully showing his real intentions in power, Hugo Chavez met with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. A moment that was uncomfortable because the then Venezuelan president violated the protocols to greet the british monarch.
A video from the news agency The Associated Press collects the images of the meeting, which might have been intimidating for a charismatic and emotional Chávez. From the door of the hall where the queen was waiting for him, the “revolutionary leader” gave him a slight nod. “His Majesty of him,” he said and entered the place smiling.
“Great honor to shake your hand”
Isabel II took a few steps towards him and extended her hand and later Chávez did: “How nice to greet you, it is a great honor to shake your hand, Your Majesty”, the president said as he held the queen’s right hand. Later, he opened her arms with the intention of giving her a hug, but the monarch did not respond and she marked a certain distance. At that, she must have put them down and crossed her hands, but she kept smiling.
Among the protocols that must be followed when meeting the queen It is pointed out that you should only shake hands, not kisses and hugs. But people must wait for the queen to extend her hand first, and if she doesn’t, just smile.
In a shy conversation, through an interpreter, the queen asked him regarding the international tour he was doing at the time. Chavez replied that he was doing “very well”, that it had taken him 21 days up to that point, and told him that he was in countries like Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France and Iran. And that following his visit to the United Kingdom he would continue to Canada, Mexico and finally return to Venezuela.
“A greeting from my wife, children and people”
“I bring you greetings from my wife, my children and my people,” Chavez said. The queen thanked him and then invited him to sit down. In another excerpt from the video of The Associated Press is seen when Hugo Chavez and Queen Elizabeth II took their official photos.
A news agency report stated that Chavez arrived in Buckingham following having been in Moscow, Russia, as part of a three-week international tour. Before meeting with Queen Elizabeth II, businessmen and investors. She was in Downing Street, where the official residences of the UK Prime Minister are, with whom she also met.
“What a nice lady!”
After the meeting, the Venezuelan president gave some statements in which he indicated that he spoke with Elizabeth II regarding relations between Great Britain and Venezuela and the optimism of generating “a world of peace and equality.”
The meeting, Chavez specified, lasted more than half an hour.
“What a nice lady! She has sent greetings to all of Venezuela. We have given him a beautiful painting of the fall of Angel Falls and some beautiful macaws from our Amazon jungle. He sent greetings to all the Venezuelan people,” Chávez said at the time.
“It reminded His Majesty of the heroic gesture of that British Colonel Tomás Levington Farriar, who sacrificed his life, and the British legion, who died almost all in the Battle of Carabobo, to give Venezuela Freedom. I have invited this whole world of Great Britain to keep looking at Venezuela as a country open to investment, to political relations, to economic cooperation, to cooperation with the best causes in the world, development, democracy and peace. All in all, it has been an extraordinary visit. Good news for Venezuela”, he added.
