Web Letters: Conversations With Chávez and Castro

Sean, I'm wondering, how far does this insanity need to go before you to realize your pal is a thug?

Jen Bradford

Beacon, NY

What can I say!? Well done Sean, you are brilliant in every way!

And a big hello to my mate Chávez, and to Raúl... with whom I have my differences.

Dr. Elizabeth Varrenti

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I thought this publication took itself and its readers seriously. Why, why, why would you dedicate space on your website and in your magazine to such an ill-informed, poorly constructed piece of faux journalism as what Mr. Penn has produced here?

The cover, of all things?

Let's save the mindless celebrity drivel for the Huffington Post, and keep The Nation's pages reserved for the top-notch, intelligent, thought-provoking journalism (written by real journalists) for which they were once reserved.

Jay Greeley

Charlotte, NC

A number of businesses have been criticized for branching out into areas where they cannot compete in the market. The line of reasoning is, pick a single commodity and do it well. Don't try to sell tires and lingerie at the same time. The same can apply to individuals.

Sean Penn, a good, though not great, actor, is not the best interpreter of world affairs, nor would I want him as my "goodwill ambassador at large." It is interesting to note that his best performances have not been in those heavy-handed, propagandistic films like Milk or the All the King's Men remake.

It was really a shame that this fall, while US liberals and progressives were going on and on about Sarah Palin as some "threat" to democracy (a threat to intellectual curiosity for sure, but not to democracy), Venezuela's Huga Chávez was expelling two members of Human Rights Watch. (Not that Human Rights Watch hasn't made mistakes in the past, like the Kuwait faux pas, but for the most part they are reliable and very responsible and nonpartisan.) But did I read about it in The Nation? No. Did I read about it in IPS Press? No. I did, however, read it in La Jornada, Mexico City's left-leaning daily.

I've read Eva Golinger's very revealing book The Chávez Code (Olive Branch, 2006), about our meddling in Venezuela's elections and the funding of right-wing organizations. However, that said, Chávez has in all honesty turned increasingly intolerant. It is caudillismo of the left that he is reviving, and that is anathema to true democracy. Latin American leftists need to realize this and so too, Mr. Penn, who also needs to stick to acting.

John Molina

Chula Vista, CA

Thanks, Sean. As someone who has spent fifteen years or so trying to find truths in the sea of red herrings and spinmeisters, I have come to regard Sean Penn as one of true heroes of modern times. We have many heroes: Amy Goodman, Bill Greider, Stansfield Turner, Phil Agee, etc. It's a curious lot of persons determined to expose and undermine the hypocrisy that exemplifies the group that has maintained a stranglehold on our fictitious democratic republic for 60 some years.

I will resist being long-winded and simply add this simple soliliquy to the accolades well deserved by Mr. Penn.

War concentrates wealth, peace lifts all boats. Hail to John Perkins.

Cuba sií, Hugo sií, Ortega sií,

Bush (the offspring of a sophisticated and treasonous assassin and no small murderer himself) an emphatic no.

christopher wentworth

Enosburg Falls, VT

I am an immigrant to the US from Iran and will soon be a citizen. I have followed Mr. Penn closely since his visits with Saddam Hussein. He is obviously unhappy with the US. He should move to Iran and protest the abuse of people there. But wait, they would kill him in response. How does the US have so many natives who hate their own county? Nowhere else would I have opportunity like I have here. Yet Mr. Penn seems popular. I see him for what he is: traitor to his homeland.

D. Netssiah

Baltimore, MD

First, congratulations to Mr. Sean Penn for this amazing article. What is happening in Venezuela is what has happened just recently in the USA, some Americans supported McCain, others Barack Obama. But who is really the winner? The winner is who gets the majority of votes. In this world you cannot please everybody, but you can please the majority. If Chávez has been in power for so many years with more than ten elections and even a referendum, it is because the majority of Venezuelan people support him. We can blame his goverment for not taking enough hard action against crime in Venezuela, but what we can really show off is what UNESCO says about education in Venezuela :"The 2005 Education for All Global Monitoring Report showed that the country’s schooling rates are among the region’s top ten." Or maybe better, what ECLAC says about the economy of Venezuela statistically. I must mention that ECLAC belongs to the UN, a organization that researched the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean.

It's sometimes ironic the way the media can cover a comment from Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, against IFM, compared to the way they would do it if Chávez made the same comment. And why? Because we have to make Chávez be seen as a dictator? a terrible communist? How would Latin America have been if the USA had never been inside our continent stealing our resources and making our people more illiterate and more poor? Why can we not let countries be run in the way their people want? Especially if this country has a democratically elected president. We cannot even compare one country with another, and not even expect a president to run a country in the way another does it, because each country has different needs. The most powerful tool is giving to the people education, including them in society and making them feel useful. I just hope and wish latinoamerican countries get together and work together in peace for the best.

Thanks so much for visiting my country!

Livonet Suarez

Sandvika, Norway

I couldn't read beyond the opening paragraph, in which Saddam is mildly rebuked as a "shmuck." How could I possibly credit a single thing he has to say after that? Penn hates being lied to, he hates having his intelligence insulted, but gives me this shit?

Jen Bradford

Beacon, NY

"Having said that, I'm a proud American and infinitely aware that if I were a Cuban citizen and were to write an article such as this about the Cuban leadership, I could be jailed.... I consider mentioning this, and perhaps should have, but I've got something else on my mind."

Something else on your mind? Perhaps it was the delightful glass of red wine you were sipping in the company of a man who locks up writers in deplorable conditions. Let's not beat around the bush. Sean Penn, you're a self-regarding child. Would you have sat down to dinner with some old-fashioned Latin American caudillo who locked up writers? Of course you wouldn't. So why sit down with Raúl? Because it tickles your infantile vanity to sit down with a hero of the left--but a grubby dictator just the same. I'm Sean Penn! Look at me! I'm making a difference!

You justify it by telling yourself that, oh well, if there was an election, he would get 80 percent of the vote. I wonder if you actually believe that. Ask yourself this, Sean: why doesn't Raúl hold an election? What a wonderful way, at a stroke, of demonstrating unarguable legitimacy, silencing the critics, and de-legitimising, ata a stroke, the entire raison d'étre of sanctions.

Did that occur to you, Sean? Or perhaps you had something else on your mind?

Danny Lefroy

Sydney, Australia

As a Cuban-American it saddens me to see people like Sean Penn use the media to make a mockery of the suffering of the Cuban people and the Venezuelans under these tyrants. To cuddle up to these animals and have wine and dinner while the very people they oppress starve right outside the door is despicable.

To people like Sean Penn in the end it doesn't matter because it was an adventure, a kind of safari through the darker parts of the world and, besides, the tyrants said their subjects love them, right? Best of all, Sean, you get to go home to the US in a couple of hours feeling great that you did your small part to bring the sides together for world peace, right?

However, the people of Cuba, as will soon be true of the people of Venezuela, have no rights and live in misery and fear. They are beaten or killed when they don't conform. A good indicator of the level of oppression in Cuba is how many have died or have been killed, many with children, trying to leave the island. I wish I could give you a number, but it could be hundreds of thousands--no one will ever know.

Yet Mr. Penn wants to portray these two tyrants as reasonable leaders, and even Christians! Even though they have no problem allowing the wholesale murder of hundreds or thousands of people, even children in their own countries or any other country they can exploit. To Sean that's not the main topic, so let's not sweat the small stuff like murder, oppression and starvation, in Cuba's case for fifty years. Lets have some more of that tea with the old revolutionary, and oh yeah, let's blame the US for all of it.

The plainly evident reason Sean and those like him enjoy being in the company of these animals is that they like the attention it gets them. You see, Sean and his ilk and the tyrants they willingly serve want to be considered enlightened intellectual peacemakers, righteous rebels, but in reality they are only dangerously shallow egomaniacs who lust for power. It's just that in the tyrant's case they are willing to kill, maim and destroy anyone, even their own countries to get it. In Sean's case, he is willing to turn a blind eye to the destruction and oppression just so he can feel special and important again and play journalist.

Sean, I hope you can hear the laughter, because the tyrants are not laughing with you, they are laughing at you, because you were willing to give up your dignity, your humanity and integrity for a photo op and tea with a tyrant, and unfortunately it's not a movie, you don't get them back.

So go ahead and cry about the election of Obama like you actually mean it, you're good at that. Someone needs to remind you that those of us that truly admire American men and women who fought and died fighting tyrants and oppression, like the ones you admire and prostitute for, consider you a hypocrite of the worse kind. With all America's imperfections these men and women paved the way for Obama's historic election, and misguided egomanics like you express a wanton ignorance of the facts.

Think about it, Sean, you're in the company of people who admire Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Hitler, Hussein, etc. and consider their tactics visionary, but don't worry about it, just listen to the laughter, Sean, they are all laughing at you.

Dan Delgado

Miami, FL

After reading Sean Penn's inspiring article and the responses to it, I became upset with the lack of communication among our national leaders. It is important to communicate on some basic level in any relationship. Our current administration refuses to do so until its strict demands are met, and because of this, we as a global nation have been subjected to trade embargoes, strained international relations and, even worse, military conflict.

One reader wrote that this article is "narcissism disguised as journalism," among other negative comments about Penn's knowledge of Chávez and the Castro regime. For The Nation's readers to chastise him for talking to Chávez and Castro, a task our own president won't undertake because of policy, ego and other lackluster reasons, is a tragedy.

I believe that he is trying to help bridge the communication gap between our leaders, first and foremost. So what if he uses his celebrity to draw attention to this issue? As we know from our tabloids, there are plenty of other ways celebrity draw can be misused. Of course he has his opinions, which may be radically liberal to some, but the message to the current and future global leaders is that communication is paramount.

Jessiqa Pace

San Francisco, CA

No one can dispute that Mr. Penn has an open mind and is a true American. One does not have to ascribe to any mainstream opinion in order to be a patriot. People who disagree with him about Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro or Hugo Chávez and view them as Satans, rather than politicians who are seeking fairness for the masses rather than serving capitalism, personal greed and dictatorship of the dollar, must embrace as their heroes people like the three auto-giant CEOs who come to Washington on company planes to beg for trillions out of American taxpayers' future earnings, when vast masses of Americans cannot afford computers, the Internet, decent education, housing and non-toxic foods. Mr. Penn represents the best in America. Thanks.

ANGELA BARSEGHIAN

Los Angeles, CA

Dear Mr Penn,

Congratulations on a beautifully written article--I actually read "A Mountain of Snakes," not the clipped version. It takes initiative and curiosity--two things not common enough among film stars--to undertake beautiful voyages such as yours. I would, however, like to comment on a couple of aspects.

Venezuela, since Chávez got democratically elected (people tend to forget this, as you have remarked), has seen the steepest climb in violent crime ever, especially in Caracas, a city that now has the doubtful honor of having the highest murder rate in Latin America. When people are afraid of walking on the streets, even driving at certain times, those people are not free. Next time you visit Caracas, please ask anyone to take you to a ranchito at night--hell, even by day. I assure you, you will be denied that option (security has deteriorated so much in a certain number of them that garbage trucks are escorted by militarized police and armored vehicles). At the same time, income inequality has actually widened and the number of Venezuelan citizens living under what in Western countries is the poverty line has climbed. Cronyism and nepotism are common. Venezuela's oil industry is becoming dilapidated--much like in the past, you could say--and the state of education is disgraceful (unlike in Castro's Cuba).

At the same time, the "elite," demonized in a very Atwaterian manner, still go to five-star restaurant inaugurations, country clubs, secluded beach paradises and night clubs (these have migrated to indoor shopping malls for security reasons).

For a ruler who has vowed to lift the poorer strata of society from deplorable standards of living, Chávez has not been very effective at it. His way to equality seems to be rather the opposite: sink everyone into poverty (arguably also valid if what you try to achieve is a homogeneous society).

If Chávez wants to prove himself as the leader the Venezuelan people--not the oligarchs--need, he has a very clear path to it: lift them out of poverty. Unfortunately loud-mouthed, rimbombant demeanor, country-wide tours, eight-hour television shows featuring himself in every channel every Sunday--sometimes feeding his grandson, sometimes eating his meals--are not the way to prosperity.

He should learn from Lula.

Yan Herreras

Madrid, Spain

I guess it never crossed your mind to ask Raúl Castro about suppression of religion. That oversight may have been wise. Someone might have become agitated. Hitch isn't very tolerant.

Peter Van

Westborough, MA

I watched a program this weekend on the lost Hittite empire and then did some reading. They were one of four equally powerful, wealthy empires from the seventeenth to the twelfth century BC (Egyptian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian), but completely disappeared within seventy years. The Egyptian empire went on, and still exists as the Arab nations in Northern Africa; the Assyrian empire expanded to the Persian Empire (Alexander the Great), and continues today as the Middle East. The Mesopotamians were the founding people of the Greek and Roman Empire. All three empires expanded by military conquest, peaceful assimilation, political treaties and cultural trade. They invented, they wrote, they exchanged civilization, they encouraged studies and education.

The Hittite Empire founded their capital in the most remote region of their territory, surrounding themselves with an incredible, four-mile long wall (spectacular architecture for the time). They flourished for about 400 years solely through military conquest, and then disappeared. They developed a unique language and remained incommunicable with their conquests. When their stronghold was uncovered in the 1970, it took nearly forty years to figure out their history, simply because their were no records connecting to other civilizations of their time. They were a totally independent culture and became increasingly weak, with no cultural growth, no outside stimulation of thought, no genetic strength. What was most interesting to me was that the Hittites were an Indo-European people.

I strongly believe that history repeats itself. The Berlin Wall, the Great Wall of China... The first-known "Great Wall" was in Zimbabwe.

The Great Wall of America? Doesn't sound American to me--it sounds paranoid and fearful. We are afraid of "strangers," we won't assimilate foreigners, we are suspicious of non-Christian religions. Through the first hundred, 150 years, the United States was ferociously successful through democracy (all men are created equal) and a government that welcomed immigrants, most of which were from the UK and Western Europe. We did pretty well with this mostly Christian, non-Catholic stance. The Irish famine in the 1850 brought in a wave of "micks"--took a while for the Irish to make their way up the social food chain (Kennedy still being our only Irish-Catholic president). Lots of Italians after WWI--"wops," they were called. Took a while for blacks and women to enter the "all men are equal" membership. And there wasn't any "screening" or "profiling"; there was no "job" waiting for them; there was no sponsorship. This started happening after WWII--we were afraid of "Jews," "Japs" and "Commies." Since the '50s, we have been in demise, as a culture, as a country, as leaders. We are becoming less educated, less innovative, less healthy--I believe the creation of the Department of Homeland Security is the definitive timeline, the iconic marking of the beginning of our end.

Diane Lacy

Ashland, OR

Dear Sean Penn:

You’ve always been one of my favorite actors. How could anybody not admire you in Dead Man Walking or Milk or All the King’s Men? Let’s make a deal: I’ll never try to be an actor--and you’ll never again try to be a journalist. So I can keep admiring you as an actor, and don’t have to worry about you interviewing Latin American presidents and giving them free publicity.

Your piece is simply embarrassing. So Hugo Chávez spent some quality time with you on Isla Margarita telling you he’s a nice social democrat? How very sweet. Whom else did you talk to in Venezuela?

Journalists don’t receive the kind of VIP treatment you received in Venezuela and Cuba--especially not in those countries. Journalists talk to people other than comandantes and presidents, and that makes them very suspicious to your friends Castro and Chávez.

There is something you obviously share with your friend Hugo: a deeply rooted allergy to criticism. When the paper that gave you the opportunity to write about your trips to Iraq and Iran, the San Francisco Chronicle, published an ironic piece about celebrities like you making fools of themselves by palling around with dictators and operetta presidents, you resigned from the paper. Which probably wasn’t such a bad idea, if it meant resigning from journalism altogether...

But you just couldn’t resist. Another trip into the fascinating and exclusive world of "revolutionary" leaders in need of publicity. Writing it all down for The Nation, without even talking to the people in Cuba and Venezuela who think of your friends as the opposite of revolutionaries.

When you resigned from the Chronicle calling it an "increasingly lamebrain paper," Phil Bronstein, the paper's chief editor--himself a veteran foreign correspondent who during the Salvadoran war wrote some of the best and most courageous investigative articles about human rights violations by the Salvadoran government--commented: “Sean is a great actor and a great director." Which reads, "He is a lousy reporter anyway." I fully subscribe to his opinion.

Paolo Luers

San Salvador, El Salvador

I'd like to thank Sean Penn for the insight he's provided. Cuba and Venezuela, more importantly Cuba are of much interest. I don't understand why the injustices against them.

They are our neighbors and respect should be allowed until proven otherwise. In our history books we've always been led to believe that Cuban missile crisis was reason for punishment. Punishment that I might add has robbed them and us of many opportunities for too long. Cuba for sure is not perfect, but neither is the United States. I am confident that President Obama will be a difference-maker and in the end the US and Cuba will enjoy improved relations.

Patrick Porras

San Antonio, TX

I was born in Cuba. I have very little to say that hasn't already been said by others in response to Penn. I only ask, before another American goes to Venezuela and/or Cuba: Why don't you stay a lot longer? Live the life that these people live, without all your homes, cars, money, rights and freedoms. Mr. Penn, if you think you cried the night Obama was elected, I guarantee you will cry even more once you live (not visit) the life of a Cuban. It is an insult to those of us who gave up our country to come to the US for the rights you so quickly dismiss. By the way, the chance of a Castro winning an election that was held without restrictions or possible imprisonment if you voted for a democracy are none. But you my friend would never know that because most Cubans would fear speaking the truth to you. At times I just wonder if people like Penn are really that stupid or just that idealistic!

Ana Elena Garcia

Williamsburg, VA

Sean Penn apparently cannot discriminate between a statesman and a tyrant. Was he on a fact-finding vacation? Castro is the heir to a noble but failed revolution. The only word I can find to describe Chávez is "pig." He is an awkward dictator. Penn should live in NW South America for some time. I suggest the Ecuadorian-Colombian border.

Jerome Robbins

Carrboro, NC

Mr. Penn, the fawning quality of your article makes it clear why the Castro brothers chose you as their mouthpiece. I can add little to the indignation of those who have already written with authentic knowledge of Cuba and Venezuela (versus your touristic, willingly manipulated impressions). This is not journalism, it is narcissism disguised as journalism--since the true focus of the piece is you.

bob weisberger

Richmond, VA

If politics is acting for ugly people, then Sean Penn clearly demonstrates that acting is politics for stupid people. It's sad to see The Nation join the low company of Raúl Castro and Hugo Chávez in employing such an eagerly useful idiot as a mouthpiece.

James E. Parker

San Francisco, CA

We have translated Sean Penn's article into Spanish.

Tlaxcala
The Network of Translators for Linguistic Diversity

Trifouilis-les-Oies, World

I admire Sean Penn's efforts for a few reasons. First, actually going to these various places helps add nuance to understanding what is going on. That being said, there's no denying that many of these leaders prep themselves and are propagandists (in particular in Cuba, which has a terrible human rights record no matter what we in the states have done). I get the impression from Penn that he's entirely convinced himself as to the veracity of what is said to him, which is why I'm surprised at some of the hostility aimed at him. It's easy to criticize, but let's keep in mind that Penn is, if nothing else, a good example of what the rest of us should be doing, looking for answers outside our government press releases and the mainstream media.

I have no doubt that there are many abuses and human rights violations taking place in many of the countries Penn has visited, but I think what's important is dialogue and interaction. Ignoring and demonizing these countries (whatever Chávez is, he's not a dictator so much as an elected leader leaning towards authoritarianism--not unlike Putin) has proven counterproductive. I want my country to change its foreign policy positions (less military interference, more international humanitarian cooperation) and I want us to talk to and have normal relations with Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and Syria. We have normal relations with China, whose human rights record is probably worse than that of Cuba's, for example. Iran is run by religious zealots, no doubt, but so is Saudi Arabia and we talk to them. Time for a change, and people like Sean Penn and Jimmy Carter have shown that dialogue, at the very least, reveals our own ignorance and prejudices that have clearly been warped by our government and its media puppets.

Ali Ahmed

Oakland, CA

For several years now I have been ribbing a friend of mine who keeps saying Sean Penn is not like other Hollywood actors. She says he has a brain and is prepared to use it. And is even, horror of horrors, willing to allow himself to be seen to use it.

Having read this article, I realize my cynicism was misplaced.

Sean Penn is a brave, brave man who has stepped into a cesspit of misinformation in the interests of uncovering the truth. Knowing the track record of the players in this disinformation industry, I fear that Penn may even have endangered his own life by such an act.

He has done the people of the USA a service, though they do not realize it and are unlikely to thank him for it. Correcting the received wisdom of generations is never easy, all the more so in a country marked by the arrogance of certainty.

He has stood in front of a tank, and I salute him.

Simon McGuinness

Dublin, Ireland

Thanks to Mr. Carlos Urdaneta for his letter. He very well points out the facts that make Mr. Penn's article a sad and rather ridiculous piece of writing.

At this precise moment, 8:30 pm, I am being informed that Mr. Chávez is shutting down the last TV station that openly opposes him, namely Globovisión.

Time and again, I am surprised by honest, well-meaning, liberal people who fall for the silly old saying, The enemy of your enemy is your friend. Mr. Stalin was not our friend, and neither was Mao Zedong. Mr. Bush's enemies are not necessarily our friends. Chávez and Castro are certainly not. Plus, there are a number of serious articles that show that Mr. Chávez and the exiting US president share quite a number of pathological traits of character.

Yes, Mr. Penn, you are sucking up to a leftist Dubya. One thing I can't share with Mr. Urdaneta is his final injunction: By all means, yes, keep coming to Venezuela, you're free to.

But I'll tell you this: Sooner or later you are bound to feel ashamed and embarrased to come here, and you'll have two choices: either you quietly quit the subject and hope nobody mentions it to you (this is the easy dishonest choice) or you tell Mr Chávez in the face what you finally think of him, then publicly inform everybody that you retract.

As you are an actor who has inspired me many times, I do hope you take the difficult choice when the time comes.

claude carranza

Caracas, Venezuela

What did Sean Penn expect to see in Venezuela if he was toured around by pro-Chávez people? Did he take a look at the failed co-ops or the half-finished apartment complexes? Hugo Chávez is a fraud. Venezuelans from every part of society had high hopes that he would break the cycle of corruption and bad government, but he has done nothing but divide the country in half, steal money by the containerload and set up his supporters for a world of hurt if the country goes back to a right-wing government.

Do you know how long it will take the socialist agenda to be even credible again in Venezuela? Hugo's antics have inflicted some serious damage to an already impoverished country and have set Venezuela back even further than the previous government did. Huguito is a monster dressed in sheep's clothing. He toys with the poor, uneducated people in the cruelest way. That Penn bought into Chávez's showmanship says a lot about him. Come mierda.

Miguel Castillo

Miami, FL

I think it would be a really good idea for us to make friends with Cuba. The cold war is over and they are our neighbors. What did they ever do to us? The best reason to befriend them is that they have already survived a food crisis when the Soviet Union cut them off from all supplies. After everyone lost twenty pounds, they figured out how to grow all their own food organically. That is truly sustainable living. Due to the fragility of the world food system and inevitable loss of oil (huge amounts of which are used to grow and transport food), we will have a food crisis in the US at some point. If they are our friends, we will be able to call on their expertise to help us get food growing. They could be a huge help to us. They have also created great healthcare and education systems that we could probably learn from. Let's give peace a chance and reconnect. There is a very inspirational movie called The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil. I highly recommend it. I live in Hawaii, where we should be especially sensitive to this issue, as we have about a week's supply of food and fuel on hand at any given time. If something happened to cause ships to be unable to provide everything we consume, we would have a catastrophe in no time at all.

(Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.)

Maury King
South Maui Sustainability

link
Kihei, HI

After reading an article in my local newspaper referring to Mr. Penn's offers to Chávez and Raúl "Wizard" Castro to come to Washington to meet with President-elect Obama, I "wondered, without wondering" what makes Mr. Penn such an expert on Cuban and Venezuelan affairs. So I came to this site to find out, and after reading this article, I understand. He has visited Venezuela and Cuba twice. That makes him an expert.

Julia Alemany

Miami, FL

Indeed, if anyone represents what is "saintly," it's Cindy Sheehan.

But upon acknowledging that fact, Sean Penn does what is usual for those who believe saints can be taken for granted: he goes in search of folks whose testimonies he believes can be finer, grander, more meaningful, more redemptive.

Cindy Sheehan is enough. We can't do any better than Cindy Sheehan. It's not a shame that she must represent us; rather, it's the shame.

Cameron Jones

Indiana, PA

Sean Penn, you are an actor, not an intellectual obviously. You have been manipulated by at least two dictators, Raúl and his dying brother, Fidel. Why didn't you ask Raúl why human rights are denied in Cuba? Why are most Cubans afraid to speak on the streets because of fear of imprisonment? Cuba is not a paradise, as Michael Moore and other left-leaning Hollywood producers indicate. Go to a hospital in Cuba, not the ones the tourist or outsiders go to but where the locals are treated. They are a disgrace to humanity. Cuba has been a dictatorship (no free elections) for almost fifty years, and Hollywood applauds this? Sean Penn, you need to speak to the Cuban people to learn the truth--unfortunately, most would be afraid to speak to you. I was born in Cuba, these are the facts!

george Golik

Miami, FL

Oh, banality.

Jared Lister

New York, NY

It is not possible to describe with decent words the hate and anger that presumed prominent figures like this pretentious actor Sean Penn provokes in us, in coming to our countries to try to give us lessons of democracy and social struggle.

This gentleman Penn, who lives in the USA surrounded with all the luxury his profession provides and who enjoys all the rights that his democratic government guarantees, comes to embrace and shake hands with Chávez, who is no more than a pro-communist dictator with intentions of being eternized in power--creating in Venezuela a situation slightly similar to Fidel's in Cuba--while the Venezuelan population suffers the worst assaults on human rights since the last dictator, Perez Jimenez, was overthrown more than fifty years ago.

Fundamental freedoms are being violated by the same President Chávez that Mr. Penn praises and elevates throughout the world with his visit, while the underworld, hunger, misery, unemployment and inflation are reducing our villages to the level of those in Africa.

Did you know, Mr. Penn, that in Venezuela 200 persons are murdered every week, and with impunity--the corrupted justice and police system promoted by Chávez does nothing?

Did you know, Mr. Penn, that Venezuela's estimated inflation this year approaches 45 percent, far higher than America's and almost the highest of the world?

Did you know, Mr. Penn, that it has been demonstrated authentically that from Venezuela Chávez supports financially and militarily the terrorist guerrilla warfares of Colombia and Peru that have sowed desolation in those countries for dozens of years, and that in addition Venezuelan compatriots have been kidnapped and murdered on Venezuelan soil with the complacency of our army?

Did you know, Mr. Penn, that Venezuela has turned into a great world paradise of money-laundering, drug trafficking and other illicit activities; that our territory has turned into a major bridge for the world's traffic in drugs, a lot of which is going to show up finally on the streets of your own country--part of it very surely to be consumed by you, Mr. Penn? Did you know that Chávez government authorities give protection, and in some cases even citizenship, to the terrorists of Al Qaeda and other Islamic factions, the same that knocked down the towers of New York?

Know well, Mr. Penn, that people like you that come to our countries wanting to gain stature worldwide by visiting supposedly charismatic Third World leaders, are not welcome here. Go away to your Hollywood and continue making films. I recommend that you study Latin-American history and do a documentary on the more than 200,000 murders that Fidel has committed in Cuba, or on the adventures of the more than 50,000 balseros (shipwrecked) who have preferred to lose their lives suffocating in the sea trying to come to your country than to remain living through the "idyllic" Cuban situation that you and people like you support with your visits.

Mr. Penn, we demand that you never return to Venezuela, you are not wanted here. I will not watch any of your movies until you do the ones I suggested.

Attentively,

carlos urdaneta voth

Caracas, Venezuela

Every time I see Mr. Penn visiting Venezuela, together with Mr. Chávez, I wonder if he would have the same impression of the country arriving like any tourist. Taking a taxi at the airport to see if he gets to his destination safely--in Caracas alone there are forty to fifty homicides every weekend. And Mr. Chávez has scarcely even mentioned the word "insecurity" during his ten years of government.

Or I would like for Mr. Penn to get sick and try to go to any public hospital, to see if he gets any attention, among the many that die in the aisles of the hospital. Venezuela has received in the past ten years unthinkable amounts of revenue from the high oil prices, but where are the new hospitals, water treatment plants, highways, schools? Nothing, just pure propaganda. Buying consciences, and maintaining poverty to sell hope to his followers.

And last but not least, why on earth should Mr. Penn use Venezuelan airplanes for his private affairs? That is illegal, here and anywhere worldwide.

Chávez tells the world that he is not a dictator just because he has accepted some of the losses in the elections. In December 2007 the Venezuelans said no to a referendum to a reform of the constitution by which he wanted to turn the country toward socialism, but he has still approved several laws that further that constitutional reform.

I would like for Mr. Penn to leave his comfortable Hollywood life and live here for a while like a Venezuelan citizen, without special considerations, just to see if within a month he would still think the same about Venezuela.

Trina Krispin

Caracas, Venezuela

I would expect Penn to have no idea what the Monroe Doctrine is; perhaps he's misremembering Brinkley's remarks, which are clearly about the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. The Monroe Doctrine was not imperialist, but rather anti-imperialist, stating that Europe should have limited influence in the New World. It was Theodore Roosevelt who tweaked the doctrine to justify US intervention in Latin America.

David Adler

New York, NY

I always have to laugh when holier-than-thou critics of "dictatorships" elsewhere conveniently forget what we have in our own back yard. Physician, heal thyself. We have consolidated all power in one branch of government, and invaded a sovereign nation based on lies, murdering over a million people in the process; the US has incinerated people without trial in a crematorium at Abu Ghraib. And Obama shows increasingly no inclination to incur accountability whatsoever. Show me where Chávez even comes close to that. You dare to criticise others about inequality? I could go on and on.

stanley hersh

New York , NY

Let me saw that I have been a strong opponent of many of George Bush's policies, which, as they enevitably would, led to the disgrace of Guantánamo. I was also an Obama supporter.

That having been said, I must tell you now that I frankly do not give a red rodent's rectum about the opinions two insignificant tin horn dictators have about my country or my new president.

Neither should you, really.

Best regards and Happy Thanksgiving,

CHARLES THORNTON

Reisterstown, MD

Why is it that sometimes the best-intentioned and politically progressive persons from First World countries are willing to prescribe or be sympathetic with regimes or leaders of Third World countries who are obviously denying the most basic political rights to their countrymen, or if not yet, paving the way towards it?

Mr. Chávez is not sincere. His assertion that he is a social democrat is untrue. His stated belief in the social gospel of Christ is merely tactical. Sean Penn, whom I admire so much--both for his acting as well as for his political views--is being manipulated, a victim of his sincere desire to see justice be made in Venezuela and in any other country where inequality is rampant.

Having lived in Venezuela, I know of its slums, I well know how multiple governments used the country's vast natural resources to enrich its elite while neglecting to improve the lives of millions. Chávez came to power because the people of Venezuela finally said "no más" to an inept and corrupt political cadre in both main political parties, Acción Democrática and COPEI.

But not everything was bad in Venezuela at the time Mr. Chávez came to power winning the elections. A large middle class thrived. Highly educated Venezuelans occupied the ranks of all kinds of professions and, most important, many were entrepreneurs who had invested in a growing endogenous manufacturing and services sector. Venezuela, despite its social challenges, exhibited a strong democracy, with all sorts of newspapers and political parties from the extreme left Communist Party of Venezuela to the social-Christian center-right business-oriented COPEI.

Mr. Chávez has impoverished the country by systematically harassing and weakening the endogenous business community and the middle class. The result has been the virtual disappearance of not only the local elites but also the middle class, with the increasing nationalization of private property and whole industries and an exodus of professionals to other countries in search of better living conditions. Perhaps this is the most lethal legacy of Mr. Chávez's presidency, the disruption of Venezuelan society and its sense of national unity, its implosion into antagonistic groups and the fear of losing one's job or a contract because of opposing or failing to support the official party in power.

The urban landscape mirrors those phenomena, the urban centers in shambles, the once remarkably beautiful Caracas boulevards now flooded with uncollected trash, its vandals roaming the streets at night, where tourists dare not promenade any more. It's a pity. In the late '70s I used to compare the city with Paris at night, so lively and safe it felt.

I consider myself a social democrat and I subscribe to most, if not all, of the views typically expressed in The Nation, and I wish for the people of Venezuela the same fundamental rights I desire in my own country.

Carlos A. Bas

San Juan, Puerto Rico

How comforting it is to know that Sean Penn--he with the torn-at-the-knee blue jeans--has become one of our leading foreign policy experts. His "Conversations With Chávez and Castro" was a puff piece written by an idiot. Hey, Sean, what about free elections and human rights? That The Nation would feature such dribble is a sad commentary on the magazine. Who really cares what Penn thinks other than you worn-out lefties at The Nation, where you're still in denial over Joseph Stalin.

Charles Jackson

Atlanta, GA

Congratulations to Sean Penn. Very well done.

The MSM may twist their knickers ignoring this piece, as he's not only landed a scoop but considerably surpassed MSM journalistic standards.

BTW: the latest estimate of Cuban offshore oil reserves is 21.6bbl, about equal to US reserves and double Mexico's. With China as Cuba's financial partner in developing these fields, the ballgame changes significantly, with Cuba on its way to becoming a high per capita wealth nation.

R.H. Weber

Geneva, Switzerland