Caracas -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is releasing an exercise video.Hot on the heels of his headline-making advice to all Venezuelans to exercise and lose weight by eating rice pasta, drinking soy milk and doing sit ups, the newly health-conscious maximum leader says he is determined to see his people eat less and slim down.
"Sweating the Bolivarian Revolution" will be released in time for mandatory purchase for the holidays.
It features Chavez admonishing a group of government ministers to do more sit ups, brandishing his revolver as frightened children drink their soy milk, and punching an object that resembles a heavy boxing bag, but is clearly wriggling and gasping, among other activities.
Making cameo appearances in the video are a bare-chested Russian Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and actor Sean Penn, who compliments Chavez from close range on how much smaller his posterior looks now that he has lost some weight.
Venezuela's last-remaining television station has agreed to play Chavez's new video every morning, after lunch, and after dinner hours in the South American nation.
The new video, a government minister said today, will be available in BetaMax and reel-to-reel formats, suitable for home use by most patriotic Venezuelans.
A DVD version, the minister added, will be given out free with every fill up at all Citgo stations in North America.
