President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela proudly claims his African ancestry.

A striking aspect of Oliver Stone's new movie "South Of The Border" is its depiction of the Orwellian state of our news media--especially when it comes to coverage of South America and South American leaders.


How did Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected president of Venezuela many times over, suddenly become a "dictator," as he is referred to by Fox News and other “news” organizations? How much longer can the United States politicians divide the world's countries into allies and enemies based on their willingness to supply us with cheap oil or a place to house our military bases? As it turns out, Stone reveals, by sticking to an outmoded perspective of the region, American news organizations have missed one of the biggest political stories of the past decade--the transformation of Latin America into a region headed by popularly elected leftists leaders who aren't afraid of the word revolution.


It doesn't take much for Stone to uncover this mammoth story. He simply does the seemingly undoable: he actually SITS DOWN to talk to these presidents: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela; Evo Morales of Bolivia, Cristina Kirchner of Argentina, Lula de Silva of Brazil, Fernando Lugo of Paraguay, Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Raul Castro of Cuba. Almost all of them embrace the idea of people's revolution first espoused by Simon Bolivar, a 17th century Venezuelan political leader who played a key role in Latin America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire.


He spends the most time with Chavez, who was elected president of Venezuela on a platform of spreading the country’s immense oil wealth to raise the standard of living for the country’s poor and has done that with a series of reforms. Chavez also has one of the highest profiles of those interviewed, both in Latin America, where is admired for demanding sovereignty and respect for the indigenous people of his country and the region, and admired for standing up to the United States, with its history of manipulating Latin American politics to the extreme of carrying assassinations, fomenting wars and supporting exploitation by multinational corporations.


Chavez also makes a colorful subject because of his own history of being a rebel leader who was jailed and then elected with the largest majority ever in a Venezuela balloting—despite fierce opposition from the media in his own country, which is owned by the tiny wealthy elite, long accustomed to business as usual under the old order.


In Venezuela, as in the other country’s that elite was usually white or lighter skinned while he majority of the country was darker, ranging from café au lait to black. The new leaders also have bucked this trend, as they tend to LOOK LIKE the majority of people in their country.


Chavez proudly embraces his African ancestry. Morales is the first indigenous Bolivian ever elected as president. When these leaders are gathered together in remarkable group shots in this film, it looks like a true representation of the diverse Latin American population.


“South Of The Border is a moving and exhilarating sweep of history, and modern politics that sets the record straight. It is scary. It is Orwellian if—for the majority of us in the United States—this truth is considered a lie, and the popular lies are considered truth.


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