Hugo Chavez Collects A-List Friendships

Oct. 30, 2008 — -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's list of Hollywood buddies is getting larger. The latest A-list acquaintance is an intriguing friendship that's sprung up with Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn -- in a trend critics say is aimed at improving the left-wing leader's international reputation.

Penn paid his second visit to Venezuela in mid-October; it was not formally announced and caused more than a few observers to raise their eyebrows in skepticism.

"The [Venezuelan] government takes advantage of these visits from Hollywood personalities," said Rebeca Moreno, a journalist with the independent TV channel Globovision, which has been critical of Chavez.

Other high-profile visits have been made by actors Kevin Spacey, Danny Glover and Tim Robbins, all of whom have been vocal critics of President Bush, Chavez's so-called nemesis. Last year, supermodel Naomi Campbell got a one-on-one with the man for a magazine interview, during which she called him a "rebel angel" and he playfully invited her to touch his muscles.

For both parties, these visits mean one thing --good international PR. Celebrities who want to be perceived as political heavyweights and who are critical of Bush find a sympathetic ear in Chavez, who called Bush a "devil" in a 2007 speech at the United Nations and at other times has referred to him as a "donkey" for what Chavez calls his ignorance on Latin American issues.

Also, it's one way to get a perspective of the issues in South America, a continent in which the U.S. has a rather woeful reputation for upholding dictatorships in the region.

But the Hollywood affinity for anything anti-Bush makes for a strange fascination with the man presiding over a country that has struggled to keep basic products like milk and sugar on its shelves. Among Venezuelans, Chavez's popularity has declined amid the shortage of basic goods, high unemployment and double-digit inflation, despite the country's vast oil reserves.

"Of course there are social projects and cultural missions going on, but there is also poverty, and the president has earned money from all over the place when it could have been better spent elsewhere," said journalist Simon Villamizar from El Universal, Venezuela's top-selling newspaper and a center-right paper that's been both supportive and critical of Chavez at various times. "Sean Penn is mouthing off without knowing the reality."

Outside the official state press, which has covered the high-profile visitors warmly, the celebrity trips leave a sour taste in the mouths of Venezuelan journalists who belong to independent organizations.

And reports of strong-arm tactics from the Chavez propaganda machine suggest his government has clamped down on media organizations. Globovision, for example, has occasionally come under attack by thugs allegedly belonging to his party when it has voiced dissent on the airwaves.