President Hugo Chávez, in his first public appearance following the fourth Summit of the Americas, Wednesday labeled his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox as "a puppy of the empire," which lead the Mexican Foreign Affairs Office to react immediately by asking Venezuelan Ambassador Vladimir Villegas to "render an explanation."
 
"I feel sorry for President Fox' selling out, this is sad," Chávez said late on Wednesday in a mandatory nationwide radio and TV address.

"It is so sad to see the President of such a dignified people as the Mexican people lending himself to be a puppy of the empire," the Venezuelan ruler claimed before an audience including businesspersons, middle-class people and public officials.

Chávez accused Fox of kneeling down before the United States.

"They wanted to run over us, they wanted to run over us, but as they could not, the Mexican President made a series of remarks against (Argentinean President Néstor) Kirchner and myself," Chávez asserted.

"In connection with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez' remarks regarding Mexico's participation in the fourth Summit of the Americas, the Foreign Affairs Secretariat informs that Venezuelan Ambassador Vladimir Villegas has been convened to render an explanation," said the Mexican Foreign Affairs Office in a communiqué.
 
Ambassador Villegas told AFP that the Mexican Foreign Affairs Office convened him to meet Thursday with foreign affairs "officials," but he is not scheduled to meet with Foreign Affairs Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez.

"Let's see what they have to say," said Villegas.

When asked if this impasse between Venezuela and Mexico could lead to the two countries recalling their diplomats, Villegas replied: "I do not know, we will see. I do not think so, though."

Chávez' remarks came in response to Fox' statements this week that Kirchner was to be blamed for the division seen at the end of the Summit of the Americas.

Fox also lashed out at Chávez for the "ideological stance, detached from reality" the Venezuelan ruler deployed during debates in the Summit of the Americas and during his participation in an event rejecting the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).