Director Oliver Stone visited Caracas, Venezuela this week to promote his TV documentary, "The Untold History of the United States." He met with President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who hosted him at the Miraflores Palace, which is the Venezuelan equivalent of the White House. Maduro toured Stone through Miraflores, and focused on the office where Hugo Chávez pronounced his last public speech before dying, and where he finally admitted that cancer was getting the best of him and he might not come out of it alive.
Stone and Chávez met in December 2007, and the director chose the political figure as the protagonist of "South of the Border," a documentary that explores Latin American politics and social changes, which also included interviews with leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba and Ecuador, and presented an extremely sympathetic portrait of Chávez. The film was dismissed as one-sided propaganda since it didn't include any statements from opposition members. But it wasn't until Chávez died, on March 5, 2013, that the world really knew how Oliver Stone felt about the former Venezuelan president.
"A great hero for most of his people and for those who suffer from having a place in the world. Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chávez will live forever in history," Stone expressed at the time after learning about the politician's death. During his visit to Venezuela this week, it was heavily commented that Stone was working on a new project surrounding the life of Chávez. Although he did not comment on the reports, the country's communication and information minister, Delcy Rodríguez, tweeted an apparent confirmation. "Oliver Stone came to our country to film a movie about the 'giant' Chávez," she wrote.
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