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Cameron Diaz, her 'Mao' bag and a row in the land of the Incas
Last updated at 15:52pm on 26.06.07Charlie's Angels star Cameron Diaz has managed to commit a political faux pas with her choice of handbag.
She took a bag emblazoned with a Chinese communist slogan on a trip to Peru, despite the country's recent history during which a Maoist-inspired insurgency led to 70,000 deaths.
Diaz, 34, was visiting the Inca city of Machu Picchu, a popular tourist site high in the Andes, wearing a green bag printed with a red star and the words "Serve the people" in Chinese script.
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Cameron managed to commit a political faux pas with her choice of handbag
The phrase was one of the favourite slogans of late Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung.
The Maoist Shining Path group's guerrilla rebellion of the Eighties and Nineties, and the counter-insurgency campaign, led to the deaths of thousands of Peruvians.
Local human rights activist Pablo Rojas said: "The phrase alludes to a concept which damaged Peru.
"She should not have used that bag where the followers of that ideology did so much damage."
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The Sendero Luminoso Terrorist group and its effects caused terrible damage and heartache to people here in Peru, however, precisely to the contrary, Ms. Diaz’ visit here to Peru has been a wild success.
I have to wonder how many of the foreign people attacking her for her lack of knowledge of Peruvian History could even find our beautiful country on a map!
She came here to learn, rest, and help a charity. She has done all 3, and now this!
Over these days, we have enjoyed dozens of photographs of her learning about our culture, enjoying our food and even sharing hugs and kisses (our style of greeting people) with guides, fans, and people who have surely never seen one of here movies (or any movie for that matter!!).
From here in Peru I looked for and have found NO scandal, NO outrage, NO ANYTHING “negative” about the recent and INCREDIBLY well received (return) visit of Ms. Diaz to Peru.
The Non-Peruvian press seems to have made a mountain of scandal out of the quote of one individual. That is not to diminish the horror of Sendero, but it just is NOT how we will remember her here.
She was welcomed here with the same open arms and attitude that SHE seems to have arrived with and offered to all around her.
The only sendero (path) that marked Ms. Diaz’ visit here was that by in eating, drinking, listening, learning, hugging and kissing basically everyone and everything in her path, she was in fact a "perfect guest"
Surprising for a Star
- Trevor, Peru
