I don't understand how (presumably) smart people, people who take an active interest in international affairs, can be so naive in their enthusiasm for Chavez. Certainly, he has promoted programs to redistribute wealth to the less fortunate, but at what cost? His attempts seal off the country's people from his domestic and international political adversaries -- by manipulating trade and tightening his grip on the nation's media -- are signs that his turn as president could mutate into an indefinite reign over a totalitarian regime. Isolation keeps totalitarian governments stable.The Venezuelan-raised actress Maria Conchita Alonso (whom I've never heard of...) said she hopes Sean Penn "comes to his senses and he realizes that he's being used." She's absolutely right-- in order to isolate their countries more-- and thereby solidify their personal power-- leaders like Chavez do everything they can to incite the fury of the United States. Like when President Eisenhower failed to invited Fidel Castro to a luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria while Castro was in New York for a United Nations meeting in 1960 (god, Castro's old)-- Castro instead said it would be his "honor to lunch with the poor and humble people of Harlem." That must've really annoyed Eisenhower.
Clearly, though, I shouldn't be surprised that this sort of absurd political participation is coming from Sean Penn. It's stupid, but nowhere near as nonsensical as his bizarre rant about George Bush's "soiled and blood-soaked underwear" a couple months back. At least that line resulted in this awesome "Meta-Free-Phor-All" with Stephen Colbert:
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