Radio COPE impersonates Zapatero to prank Evo Morales

DEC 20 2005

On 20 December 2005 the Spanish radio station COPE put through a prank call to Bolivia's newly elected president Evo Morales in which a comic impersonated Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero congratulating him. Morales believed it entirely and announced the supposed call at a press conference, forcing the Spanish government to deny it. Bolivia's foreign minister called it 'an offense that could disturb bilateral relations'; Spain's ambassador in La Paz delivered a formal apology, and the real Zapatero called Morales the following day.