Despite the entire controversy going on in Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro took a break from the issues to entertain some famous guests. Actor/musicians Jamie Foxx and Lukas Haas were honored guests of the president as they took in the country’s sites.
According to FOX News Latino, Maduro invited the Hollywood stars so they could visit the government-funded film and TV studio, Fundacion Villa del Cine, and other tourist attractions in the nation.
Foxx and Haas made it a point not to speak with the media during their visit, but the Venezuelan media reported that the stars were in the county to show Maduro “support for the policies of the Bolivarian Government, in particular its social missions,” and to learn about Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission,” a project which has reportedly built more than a million government-funded homes.
The site reports that the actors were also invited by Maduro to attend the signing of an agreement between Venezuela and Jordan, Dubai and Italy for the construction of 13,912 homes in the central state of Aragua.
“We have given a warm welcome to two actors who are very admired by our people … Thank you for supporting this project, and its vision to add housing as a benefit for the people of the world,” Maduro said on state-owned VTV.
While Maduro was happy to have the actors in tow for the visit, Venezuelan politicians were not pleased. Officials speculated how pricey the bill was of getting the Hollywood stars in the country.
Venezuelan congressman Carlos Berrizbeitia told the site that it would be very hard to know whether the government spent public money to make this visit possible.
"If they financed it using intermediaries it would be really hard to find out," said Berrizbeitia, a member of the National Assembly’s finance committee. "They typically say that the actors pay for their trips, but we don't really know if that's true.”
Berrizbeitia believes that the purpose for Foxx and Haas” visit to the nation was to prepare a new TV production about the life of late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez to compete with Telemundo’s “El Comandante,” also based on Chavez’s life.
The visit to Venezuela proved to be a change in opinion for Foxx, who two years ago was photographed with a group of opposition activists holding a sign “#IMYOURVOICEVENEZUELA #SOSVENEZUELA VENZUELA.”
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