The human rights activist and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has attacked the actors Jamie Foxx and Lukas Haas for visiting Venezuela’s socialist president, Nicolás Maduro, suggesting their presence in the country was connected to financial gain.
Kasparov, chair of the Human Rights Foundation, wrote a letter to Foxx and Haas – seen by the Hollywood Reporter – saying: “We have reason to believe that your visit with one of Latin America’s most notorious strongmen of the last few decades may have been motivated by financial interests and we would like you to clarify this to your millions of fans across the world.”
“Your recent participation in a propaganda campaign of the Venezuelan regime threatens to undo all the good work you’ve done and to tarnish your public image.”
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Kasparov asked the pair to disclose whether they are financially involved in an “Aragua real estate deal”, which he claimed is “falsely labelled a government housing project but has nothing to do with humanitarian work”.
Foxx met Maduro on Wednesday, with reports suggesting he “was there to support the country’s socialist revolution and attend the signing of an agreement between Venezuela and its allies for the construction of houses for the poor”. However, reports of human rights abuses are increasingly emerging from Venezuela, including illegal killings by police, mass detentions, mistreatment of detainees and forced evictions.
