HollywoodNews.com: It’s the 3rd round of what could turn out to be a 12 round fight between filmmaker Oliver Stone, and Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leader. He is the architect of a powerful new movement that promises to unite Venezuelans behind an alternative vision of democracy, free enterprise, and social change. The 38-year-old Harvard educated leader is the face of a new future for Venezuela: Democratic, inclusive, and solution-oriented.
The Associated Press calls Lopez “the man who is challenging President Hugo Chavez’s grip on power.” According to the “Washington Post,” he “represents a fresh generation” of Venezuelan leaders. “Caracas Chronicles” calls him “an early front-runner for the 2012 opposition Presidential nomination.”
Lopez was mayor of Chacao from 2000 to 2008. He won Transparency International’s Award for the most transparent municipality in Venezuela. In 2009 he founded Voluntad Popular, a social organization with the goal of promoting democracy and human rights.
For the past month, Stone has been promoting his documentary, “South of the Border,” which lionizes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. There’s a revolution underway in South America, but most of the world doesn’t know it. Oliver Stone sets out on a road trip across five countries to explore the social and political movements as well as the mainstream media’s misperception of South America while interviewing seven of its elected presidents. In casual conversations with Presidents Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Cristina Kirchner (Argentina), as well as her husband and ex-President Nėstor Kirchner, Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), and Raúl Castro (Cuba), Stone gains unprecedented access and sheds new light upon the exciting transformations in the region.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE “SOUTH OF THE BORDER” SLIDESHOW
Leopoldo Lopez, whom many experts regard as the most serious challenger to Chavez in the next presidential election, took issue with Stone’s depiction of Chavez’s rule.
He laid out his case in an opinion piece titled, “Why Oliver Stone is Wrong About Venezuela.” In that piece, he wrote that the Stone’s version of Venezuela “could not be further from the truth. If you are among the millions living in barrios, you no longer trust that you will be protected, that services will be delivered, that your lights will stay on or that you will have access to clean water.” The article includes a statement from a mother describing her reality in which she [...]
