Following the remarks made by President Hugo Chávez, who labelled as "shitty victory" the triumph of the No vote in a referendum on the draft constitutional reform, Minister of Communication and Information William Lara said on Thursday that a "rumpus" has been raisen on this matter.

"Some prudish people in the use of language consider that this word (shit) is scatological (...) The President used a word which is not a crime at all (...) There is need to take prejudices out, the colloquial, ordinary language is part of the national culture."

He thinks that there is an attempt to pretend that the head of state used scatological terms, because he "lacks culture and was enraged."

"Hugo Chávez is not the first one to use such word. Great Latin American writers, like Gabriel García Márquez, have used it."

He urged those who "purport to make this word to look like a language crime" to read "No one writes to the colonel," by García Márquez. The novel ends with the word "shit."