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 Maduro, wearing a white
facemask and a traditional Venezuelan black long
sleeve shirt known as a liqui liqui, positioned
the sword over his shoulder as Seagal nodded and
pointed in affirmation, the images broadcast
from the Miraflores presidential palace in
Caracas showed.
"The Venezuelan head of state maneuvers after
drawing the sword," a state television narrator
said, calling the weapon a "symbol of
leadership."
"I had a very friendly, affectionate encounter
with Steven Seagal," Maduro said on Wednesday in
a broadcast on television in which he referred
to the U.S. actor as "my brother."
"We talked about mutual friends like the
President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, because of
his interest in protecting forests," he said.
Maduro added that Seagal was in Canaima on
Wednesday, a national park in the country's
southern Bolivar state, accompanied by
Venezuela's minister of indigenous peoples.
"We are going to shoot a movie together that
will be called 'Nico Ma Duro de tumbar,' a
wordplay on his name meaning 'Nico Ma is hard to
knock down,'" Maduro continued.
"It is the new Steven Seagal film. We are going
to fight the demons, the bad guys. I am 'Nico.'"
[to top of second column]
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 Seagal, a U.S.-born martial
artist, is best known for producing and starring
in action movies.
He has long been a public admirer of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, a fan of martial arts.
In 2016, Putin granted Seagal Russian
citizenship and presented him with a passport,
and in 2018 Russia tasked him with improving
ties between Moscow and Washington.
 Maduro is labeled a dictator by the United
States and many other western nations, which
accuse him of violating human rights and rigging
his 2018 re-election. But he has remained in
power in part thanks to ongoing support from
Russia, which has called on Washington not to
meddle in Caracas' internal affairs.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in Caracas; Editing by
Richard Chang and Himani Sarkar)
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