Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner sent out a tweet, which ridiculed the Chinese accent, while she is in the country on official business.
The ire that followed the tweet pushed her into unflattering spotlight a bit too soon after the unexplained death of the prosecutor who had accused her of corruption.
In the Spanish tweet, the President said: "Más de 1.000 asistentes al evento... ¿Serán todos de "La Cámpola" y vinieron sólo por el aloz y el petlóleo? ..." Kirchner replaced all the r's with l's, reports Bloomberg. In English it would be read as "Did they only come for lice and petloleum?"
She then followed it with a satiric apology which read, "Sorry. ¿Sabes qué? Es que es tanto el exceso del ridículo y el absurdo, que sólo se digiere con humor. Sino son muy, pero muy tóxicos", which roughly translates to, "Sorry. You know what? It's just that the ridiculousness and absurdity is so high, that it can only be understood through humour. If not, it's very, very toxic."
The Argentine President was tweeting in reference to the 1,000 businessmen who attended a conference where she spoke.
Her tweet was not only in bad taste but also was posted at a very inopportune time; especially since Argentina is seeking investment from China to revive their recession-hit economy. As part of her four-day visit to the world's second-largest economy, Kirchner had signed 15 agreements with Chinese President Xi Jinping on issues ranging from nuclear energy to agriculture.
Kirchner, who leaves office in October, has also been trying to convince the Chinese president for a currency swap, to perk up Argentina's notoriously low cash reserves.
A las 17 hs fui recibida por el Presidente Xi Jinping en el Gran Palacio del Pueblo. Himnos, revista de tropas... pic.twitter.com/8p9mMiKCVy
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) February 5, 2015