Leon Panetta's Daughter is friends with Hugo Chavez-Fiction!

Hugo Chavez is friends with Leon Panetta's Daughter-Fiction!

Summary of the eRumor:
A forwarded email with an attached photo of controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Sandinistas junta leader Daniel Ortega and photographer Linda Panetta, warning that the daughter of the man chosen by President Obama to lead the CIA is associating with sworn enemies of the United States.

The Truth:
A spokesperson for Linda Panetta's web site told Truthorfiction.com that Leon Panetta is not her father. Leon Panetta is the new CIA Director appointed by President Barack H. Obama and the father of three sons. He has no daughters.

According to her Optical Realities web site, "Linda Panetta is a photojournalist whose work focuses on cultural, environmental and human rights, with a particular emphasis on conflict zones, including: Guatemala and Nicaragua (late 1980's - 2007); Mexico (Chiapas & Oaxaca), Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Panama, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, El Salvador, Colombia (Putumayo, Barranca, Choco...), Afghanistan (2002), Iraq (2003 / 2004), Palestine (2006 / 2008)" Click here for Linda's web site

Accuracy in Media (AIM) reported on January 19, 2009 that she said, “Not only am I not his daughter but unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of meeting this man who has done amazing work in his lifetime,” she said. “He and my father may have been second cousins,” she acknowledged, but under no circumstances is he her father." Click for AIM story

updated 01/21/09

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Compañera Panetta, with Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega January 10, 2009

This photo shows Chavez with his arm around Linda Panetta, while former Sandinista junta leader Daniel Ortega smiles on, at left. You saw it here first.

If the adult daughter of a CIA Director-designate hangs out with sworn enemies of the United States, it's a matter for the United States Senate to probe aggressively. And so the Senate really has to ask some very pointed questions about Linda Panetta, daughter of President-Elect Obama's pick to lead the CIA, and her ties to Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

Linda Panetta is a noted anti-military activist who has accused the US military of teaching Latin American officers how to torture. She has also been close to causes hostile toward the United States and friendly to the old Soviet Union, and the regimes in Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.