Bolivia lashes at Sean Penn over jailed American

Bolivia’s culture minister calls it actor-activist Sean Penn’s “worst performance” ever. He isn’t talking about a movie.

Minister Pablo Groux is slamming Penn’s proposal to a US congressional subcommittee on Monday that Bolivia be cut out of the Dakar motor sport rally unless it frees a U.S. citizen under house arrest two years after he was jailed without charge in a money-laundering probe.

Penn suggested that unless Jacob Ostreicher is freed, sponsors should drop their backing for the January event — which is to include Bolivia for the first time.

The New York man invested in a rice-growing venture and, once jailed, fell prey to an extortion ring that allegedly included the Interior Ministry’s top lawyer.