Hugo Chavez Gives Sean Penn a Shout Out During Rally
By Mali Elfman
Do an introduction at the Academy Awards and give Sandra Bullock a kiss on the cheek on Sunday, have Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thank in the midst of a rally on Wednesday. All a part of a typical week for politically active, Oscar winning actor Sean Penn who has recently been standing up against U.S. media critics for their portrayal of Chavez saying that he’s a socialist, not a dictator.
Chavez has not taken Penn’s public support lightly, on Wednesday during a televised rally in Caracas, Chavez thanked Penn for his support:
Chavez: I was reading the declarations from our friend Sean Penn, the famous American actor,” he said. “Penn defended what he considers to be the truth.
The message comes after much support from Penn in front of the cameras trying to get Chavez’s message across to the American people. Last week on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” Penn said that journalists who refer to Chavez as a dictator should be jailed…
Penn: There should be a bar for which one goes to prison for these kinds of biases.
Penn then added that Chavez has won elections fair and square and is wrongfully labeled by the media in the U.S. in order to keep his views from the American people. Penn has supported the president’s leftist political policies for a long time and has visited him several times to talk about them.
Penn: We are hypnotised by the media. Who do you know here who’s gone through 14 of the most transparent elections on the globe, and has been elected democratically, as Hugo Chávez?
What do you think about Penn’s views? Do you think he’s right?
Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:15AM
You tell um Johnny Feelgood! What's the point of being in the publics eye if you can't do something good with it?
Saturday, March 13, 2010 1:43AM
what you are seeing know… is the best president in Latin America and it takes a good brain to underestand that!
Saturday, March 13, 2010 2:42AM
The great thing about freedom of speech is that it helps us identify idiots faster.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:24AM
Living in Miami, FL may give you a differant view point on Venezula. Every Venezulian there had fled their home country for political freedom for here. Next we'll be singing songs of how great Fidel or Raul is, or ignoring (as we always have) the stark contrast between Hatii and the rest of the Caribean.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:44AM
So…freedom loving Sean Penn thinks journalists who think Chavez is a dictator "should be jailed"
So…Chavez friend loves Venezuela and its freedoms so much he always finds a way to leave promptly and come back to his many homes (plural) in the United States.
Someone call the irony police. I forgot the number.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:45AM
Does anybody defect "to" Venezuela…just askin'
If you are wondering what goes on there really…there's your answer.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:46AM
Penn has freedom of speech he can say what he wants.I also have that same freedom, you Penn will go to Hell.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:47AM
I work with a Venezuelan expat, and she makes it pretty clear that he has run all the responsible, talented people out of the country. Chavez is a thug, just like Stalin, just like Mussolini, just like Castro. Pretty stories and unicorns are not real. Think about it.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:47AM
Does anybody defect "to" Venezuela…just askin'
Saturday, March 13, 2010 5:56AM
@ Mary, Intelligent American people? are you kidding me, our country is in default we spend more money keeping people in prisons than in out Education system. What restrictions are you talking about? Venezuela is a free country, and the people of that country has continuously voted to keep this man in power. If he were such the horrible man the US media puts him to be, why would the majority of his people want him to stay in power? I am with Penn on this one, and with almost anything he does.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 6:12AM
I read all of these coments and I agree with you — freedom of speech is so important and we should respect everyones right to it, but as a journalist and a citizen of this country, I think the whole deal with jailing journalists when we have freedom of the press, very seriously and anyone who publicly says that journalists should be jailed is looking for trouble and should seriously consider living in a non-democratic government. That is a very ignorant thing to say not to mention contradicting.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 4:17PM
i find it funny how when he says "the journalist should be put in prison" that is just what they do in a dictator ship, he has obviously spent so much time with a DICTATOR that he has forgotten we have freedom of speech. i wonder where he has been lately that has a dictator?
Saturday, March 13, 2010 6:27PM
mister penn if you like mr chavez so much…why dont you move to venezuela?
Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:26PM
Penn is absolutely correct in his view. Venezuela is probably the most democratic country on earth in terms of popular sovereignty in both the economic and political sphere–especially in light of the 20,000 community councils that Chavez has helped initiate.
Venezuelan workers in most industries are able to participate in self-management of the production process–something very few other counties can claim–and national political figures, like Chavez, are subject to recall. Chavez has had to run in so many elections and referendums that to call him a dictator is ludicrous.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 9:08PM
To all the people who supports what Sean Penn said. I am a native from Venezuela and a USA citizen for many years now. Penn doesn't know what he's talking about. I still have family living there and I try to visit at least once a year. Here's how Chavez really has stayed in power. Chavez makes disappear votes for other political parties or the opposition. He has all the election records checked and all native people, like me, who doesn't vote there any more, are counted as his votes. Of course Penn wasn't told about this. Of course Penn is having a good time, being shown around and living like a great personality. Chavez is one of the few who can enjoy all the good things, because he is the only one that has access to the goodness. I dare every one who feels that Penn is right, to go to Venezuela and stay for at least one month. Let me know if you can live without water several days of the week. Let me know how do you like not having electricity from 1 to 5 pm every day. Let me know if you find all ingredients to fix your dinner. That's just to name a few things that you would go through while visiting Venezuela I was in Venezuela when Chavez ordered the shootings in April 1997 killing hundreds of innocent people, including children. There's no private media anymore–we don't have freedom of speech. Our brave journalists tried to tell the world all of the above, but instead, they were threatened to death, therefore, had to leave the country. Is this not communism?
Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:12PM
"Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo died after an 85-day hunger strike over alleged beatings and degrading jail conditions." Orlando was a leader in the alternative republican movement to Dictator Castro's Brutal Regime. Orlando was an innocent civilian that was brutally Tortured by Castro's prison guards as an example of what happens to people who disagree with Castro's policies. This fear tactic has been used by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez ,Iran's Ahmadinejad,Libya's Qaddafi, etc.