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" Sean Penn has paid tribute to his &amp;quot;friend&amp;quot; Hugo Chavez, who died yesterday (March 5). The Venezuelan president passed away on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer, aged 58.   Penn first met the world leader in 2007, before becoming a longtime supporter despite his controversial policies and criticism of the US government. &amp;quot;Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion,&amp;quot; Penn said in a statement. &amp;quot;I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela. &amp;quot;Venezuela and its revolution will endure under the proven leadership of Vice President Maduro.&amp;quot; Penn joined Chavez at an election rally in August 2012, and attended a vigil for the leader in December while visiting Bolivia. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s one of the most important forces we&amp;#039;ve had on this planet, and I&amp;#039;ll wish him nothing but that great strength he has shown over and over again,&amp;quot; Penn said last year. &amp;quot;I do it in love, and I do it in gratitude...I just want to say, from my very American point of view, of my friend President Chavez. It is only possible to be so inspiring as he is, as a two-way street. And he would say that his inspiration is the people.&amp;quot; Oliver Stone - who is also known to be a friend and supporter of Chavez - also paid tribute to the late leader, tweeting: &amp;quot;I mourn a great hero to the majority of his people and those who struggle throughout the world for a place. #Chavez 1/2. &amp;quot;Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Ch\u00C3\u00A1vez will live forever in history. My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned 2/2.&amp;quot; Michael Moore wrote: &amp;quot;54 countries around the world allowed the US to detain(&amp;amp;amp; torture) suspects. Latin America, thanks 2 Chavez, was the only place that said no.&amp;quot; Watch Sean Penn appear at Hugo Chavez&amp;#039;s rally below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a463601/sean-penn-pays-tribute-to-hugo-chavez-i-lost-a-friend/>