PJM Correspondent Caracas
A single news item almost managed to edge all the other matters of pressing concern to Venezuelans last week. Stop the presses: actor Sean Penn was spotted* shopping in Caracas!
The Oscar-winning movie star had presumably been invited by Telesur to visit Venezuela and check out some movie projects financed by the government of Hugo Chavez.
Could be – but the visit turned out quickly into a major Chavez propaganda operation, along with plenty of hints that Mr. Penn was perhaps not enjoying his tropical adventure as much as he had intended.
When the visit of Sean Penn was first brought to public attention, Chavez feigned casualness inviting him over to Miraflores Palace.
Then the two got together more formally in a widely publicized meeting*. Soon any pretense of “coincidence” surrounding the visit was erased when Chavez hosted him on his presidential Airbus in addition to other visiting “dignitaries” and a selection of the international press corps, who were decidely unaccustomed to being allowed to follow Mr. Chavez around Venezuela so easily.
The destination of the flight was a rural area of Tachira, and the coverage of the trip hit newspapers worldwide, largely via this AP report.
“Aboard the presidential jet, a grinning Hugo Chavez put a hand on Sean Penn’s shoulder, praised his acting and added: “And he’s anti-Bush!”
The Venezuelan president reveled in his role as host to the Hollywood star as they flew across the country Friday and traveled through the countryside in a military jeep with Chavez at the wheel, stopping to greet cheering supporters.”
It wasn’t the only time President Chavez would emphasize the “anti-Bush” posture of Sean Penn, an early opponent to the Iraq war and has been a determined adversary of that war since. The way that Chavez told it, one would think that Sean Penn was one of the very few brave souls in the US that dared to express his or her opinion on that matter.
Fired up by the ambiance of an apparently successful outing and pleased that he was getting more attention than the movie star in the hinterlands, he went on to make an interesting prediction about the US future: “There could be a revolution there” and offered his assistance. “We’ll help them. The United States must be helped because the United States is going to implode.”
One wonders about the reaction of Mr. Penn if his translator accurately translated that remark.
Finally, as a rather very undiplomatic gesture, Hugo Chavez made fun of the Colombian border proximity, saying that the “Empire” was very close from where they were.
It is doubtful that Venezuela’s neighbors were amused by the unfunny joke and its implications.
Not all of the coverage was quite as reverential of Chavez as he might have hoped. The New York Times correspondent Simon Romero offered a dry and sarcastic description of the trip, which included Mr. Penn relieving himself on the side road. The Reuters picture that accompanied his report is priceless: Chavez holding high above his armored car a picture of Che Guevara, as if bringing religion to the natives.
Did Mr. Penn appreciate the historical moment in Venezualan history he was witnessing during the visit in which he claimed he was coming not just as an actor but as a “freelance journalist?”
It’s doubtful whether Sean Penn realized that the head of the Committee for the Defense of the Cuban Revolution (CRD), Juan Jose Ravilero, boasted before him that Venezuela has 30 000 Cuban representatives of the feared CRD, whose mission is to monitor the activity of their neighbors in Cuba, to ensure no counterrevolutionary activities take place.
Did he know about Eva Golinger, the third-rate US lawyer whose act of revolutionary glory was to denounce 33 Venezuelan journalists for accepting a junket to the US — just as Mr. Penn had accepted one to Venezuela.
Penn was able to conclude his visit by declaring: “I came here looking for a great country. I found a great country.”
Meanwhile the 33 journalists who participated in exactly the same kind of educational visit to the United States will be grilled in the near future by the National Assembly commission back home. Even if there is no legal penalty for their transgression, they will have been put to the index of Venezuelan politics and engross a McCarthy-like list of people who do not agree with Chavez and whose career and life will be from now on under threat.
What was the real purpose of the Sean and Hugo show?
Quite likely, it is this – the closing of RCTV a couple of months ago, and its renewed persecution as it tries to become a cable-only network, tarnished the image of Hugo Chavez in international left-wing circles.
His attempts to change the constitution so as to be reelected forever is not improving his image. By getting a “progressive” world icon like Penn on his side Chavez is trying to refurbish his image in the US, where currently not a single major Democratic candidate will put in a good word for him.
The Penn propaganda is of limited use at home. Most Venezuelans that know who Sean Penn is are more likely to remember him as Madonna’s ex than for his role in Mystic River.
The point that Chavez was trying to make by hijacking the alleged private visit of Sean Penn as Telesur guest was for US and European consumption, to demonstrate to his former fans on the left that now oppose his latest measures that true-blue allies, even if Hollywood millionaires, support him no matter what. After all, his enemy is the Bush administration and the U.S. government and all is valid when you face such an enemy.
It will be interesting to hear what Sean Penn has to say about all this when he returns home, although, at this point the best strategy for Sean would probably be to shut up and try to let this painful manipulation be forgotten.
Due to the current climate in Venezuela, PJM’s correspondent in Caracas prefers not to identify himself publicly so that he can share his impressions freely.
* Link in Spanish
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