Oliver Stone on Venezuela: “Chavez Will Win the Elections”
North American film director, Oliver Stone, has spoken out on the Venezuelan elections from the San Sebastian film festival in Spain, where he stated that current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would “win the elections again” in October and that his opponent, Capriles Radonski, was “not a good guy”.
Caracas, September 24th 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – North American film director, Oliver Stone, has spoken out on the Venezuelan elections from the San Sebastian film festival in Spain, where he stated that current Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would “win the elections again” in October and that his opponent, Capriles Radonski, was “not a good guy”.
“If he (Capriles) won, he would hand the country back to the upper classes,” stated the veteran director, who was invited to the 60th anniversary of the film festival to receive a lifetime achievement award alongside Hollywood actor, John Travolta.
Stone, who directed the documentary “South of the Border” which tells the story of Latin America’s new wave of elected left-wing presidents, went on to confirm that the Chavez is “in good health,” despite the fact that the Venezuelan leader is currently recovering from an undisclosed form of cancer.
The openly left-wing film-maker also used the festival as a chance to make a series of political commentaries, including his desire to see former Spanish president, José Maria Aznar, tried at the Hague due to his collaboration with George W. Bush and Tony Blair in the Iraq war.
He furthermore made a series of statements relating to current US politics, and denounced Washington for pursuing Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.
Despite his criticisms of the current US administration, Stone said he would vote for Barack Obama in the upcoming US presidential elections, even though he considers the Democrat leader to be “not a very important leader, and even less so if he cannot change this direction to the right that we are taking”.
Stone is currently promoting his new film “Savages,” which focuses on the issue of the narcotics industry in Mexico. During the presentation of the film in San Sebastian, the film-maker strongly criticised the “stupidity” of the Washington sponsored “war on drugs”.
“Forty-two years ago we (the US) started the war against drugs… and now there are more drugs, which are cheaper and better than ever… the US doesn’t use the war on drugs to fight against drugs and the violence generated by them, but to spy on other countries and to enter other countries, such as Colombia, Mexico, Afghanistan or Pakistan, to put their people there and.. militarise them,” he stated.