So, who here has the balls to do something like this?
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/international/americas/23bolivia.htmlOfficial Call to New Leader of Bolivia Is Spanish Hoax
By RENWICK McLEAN
Published: December 23, 2005
MADRID, Dec. 22 - The Spanish government expressed outrage on Thursday after a comedian for a conservative radio station here held a five-minute telephone conversation with the new president of Bolivia while claiming to be the Spanish prime minister.
Spanish officials were taken by surprise Tuesday evening when Evo Morales, who was elected president of Bolivia on Sunday, announced that Prime Minister José Luis Rodríquez Zapatero had called to congratulate him and to invite him to Madrid.
"We were immediately suspicious when we read the comments on the wires, so we took them to the prime minister," said an official in Mr. Zapatero's office who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about government business. "He looked at them and said, 'I never spoke to Evo Morales.' "
The radio station, Cope, which is owned by Spain's Conference of Catholic Bishops and is a critic of the Zapatero government, broadcast the telephone call on Wednesday, revealing that it was behind the prank.
"Thank you very much," Mr. Morales said after the comedian invited him to Spain, according to a transcript provided by the news agency Europa Press. "I'd like to visit you, Mr. President."
On Thursday, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, Spain's foreign minister, summoned the Vatican's envoy here to demand that steps be taken to prevent such "deplorable acts" from happening again at the radio station.
Spain's justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, accused the station of seeking to sow distrust between Spain and Bolivia and of trying to ridicule Mr. Morales.
"They have arrogantly humiliated a Latin American nation, whom they look down upon from a position of supposed superiority," he told reporters in Madrid on Thursday. "It is morally reproachable."
The radio station apologized Thursday. But both Spain and Bolivia said the apology, which was conveyed in a private letter to the Bolivian Embassy, was inadequate.
The real Mr. Zapatero telephoned Mr. Morales on Wednesday night, apologized for the prank and congratulated him on his victory.