devil, a drunk, a war criminal among others and has referred to President Obama as a "clown" and "shares the same stench as Bush" The relationship reached a diplomatic low point when Venezuela temporarily froze diplomatic relations with the US for several months after Hugo Chávez expelled the US ambassador to Venezuela in 2008 –09. Relations with European nations Spain Early during his first term, Chavez visited Spain, which he ostensibly regarded as "the gateway of Venezuela into Europe." Spain was at the time anxious for the safety of the many investments Spanish banks and energy companies held in the country, which Chavez sought to reassure, and the Spanish government attempted to broker some understanding between Venezuela and the Colombian president Andres Pastrana. Relations with the Spanish conservative government of José María Aznar soon soured however, particularly as the prospect of Spanish economic interests in the country deteriorated during the early 2000s, and soon became extremely delicate, as Spain was the second country to recognise the government of Pedro Carmona, emerged from the 2002 coup d'état (the US had been the first). Criticism of Aznar emerged within Spain, from the Izquierda Unida party, whose spokesman Gaspar Llamazares claimed that "the fact that Aznar 'picked up the phone' to Carmona demonstrates his support for the coup". The Chávez government also suggested an alleged support of the Spanish ambassador Manuel Viturro to the government that emerged from the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt. Chavez did try to relaunch his relationship with Spain, which he officially visited in 2004 for the first time. Subsequently, with the 2007 change of government in Spain, relations improved ostensibly when the social-democratic Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero took over, and bilateral agreements were signed for the sale of Spanish ships and military equipment to Venezuela. However, on 10 November 2007, during the closing ceremony of the 17th Ibero-American Summit in Chile, a serious incident occurred when Chávez accused the former Spanish Prime Minister, José María Aznar, of having supported the 2002 coup attempt, calling him a "fascist" and a "racist" among other things. Zapatero, the then Spanish Prime Minister, used his time to demand that Chávez "respect" Aznar "because, beyond ideological differences, he is a democratic leader elected by the Spanish people", being repeatedly interrupted at a closed microphone by Chávez, who asked the Spanish Prime Minister to say the same to Aznar. At that point,