Chavez Staying True To Pledge For U.s. Poor

Citgo Officials Scrambling To Fine-tune Venezuelan Leader's Promise Of Cheap Oil

When Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on the weekend that he was going to open the taps on subsidized heating oil for poor folks in the United States, many assumed it was a drive-by comment aimed at raising the ire of his frequent critics in Washington. But, as it turns out, Mr. Chavez is a man of his word.

Officials at Citgo Petroleum Corp. -- the Houston-based company that is wholly owned by Venezuela's state-owned energy company -- say they are scrambling to put the fine points on Mr. Chavez's promise to supply some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the United States with cheap heating oil this winter.

"The idea is to work with communities in need, with schools, and we'll have to work through not-for-profit organizations that will serve as intermediaries," public affairs manager Fernando Garay said. "The very specific details, we don't have yet." The Venezuelan leader's program is scheduled to begin next month in the Mexican-American community in Chicago, followed by the South Bronx, and then Boston.

Analysts say that Mr. Chavez's bold use of a state-owned company in a foreign country to so openly pursue his ideological aims is highly unusual. "It's the first time I've heard that a foreign leader is basically giving away his country's natural resources," said Nikolas Kozloff, a senior research fellow at the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Bradford University scholar Julia Buxton, who has written extensively on Venezuela, including The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela, said Mr. Chavez's action is "quite unprecedented but consistent with the influence the oil has in the world economy.


http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=8811
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=46118

Wonder how in the world the right wingers will spin this---Chavez is helping the poor, as Jesus said to do. What's Pat Robertson to say to that?

need it most while our country people ignore them, hummmmmm.

:kick:

who is started to see the light sort of, but there is still a very long way to go. Anyway, she told me that she met a lady from Venzuela who told her all about Chavez and how he had the country in shambles. I didn't say anything cuz I'm really not all that familiar with Chavez but figured that if this lady could travel she was probably rather wealthy.

What is the real deal down there? What should I pay attention to when I start looking for information and reading up on Chavez and Venezuela?

of money and goods and the rest of the country gets everything else. The rich are 5% of the country. Like most of S. America. Chevez is taking money from the rich and raising the living standard of the poor. That's upsetting the apple carts so the rich would think things are falling apart.

I worked on Wall Street with two Venezuelans. One was an idiot, and he was always complaining about Chavez. The other was OK - he didn't talk about Chavez.

When the coup happened, I went to the Venezuelan consulate in New York City the day of the coup with a sign that said "STOP THE COUP - RESTORE DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA". I didn't know a coup would happen so there was no way I could plan for a group to show up, although I posted that I was going to some local mailing lists. When I got there, there were two dozen anti-Chavez people, who were filmed by local Spanish language television news (who refused to speak to me, I can speak some Spanish). one thing that struck me is that the person who organized it must have known the coup was going to happen, there was no way all of that was organized in a few hours. The fellow who organized it was Venezuelan, and so were one or two others, but most of the two dozen or so people there were right-wing Colombians, or right-wingers from some other Latin American country. Since they thought they won, they were not that bothered by me raining on their parade.

In Venezuela, like most countries, 80% of the people are workers, skilled or unskilled. 20% or so are managers or professionals. The managerial/professional people, who are the ones who usually have the money to travel to the US, mostly dislike Chavez. The working class of Venezuela is mostly behind Chavez.

Chavez won his 1998 election with the largest percentage of voters in four decades. He came back from a right-wing military coup, which I can't remember ever happening ever in Latin America or elsewhere (can anyone else?). Chavez got 60% of the vote in the 2004 election, which Jimmy Carter observed and said was fair. I recall someone standing in line to vote in a working class, very pro-Chavez neighborhood was shot dead on election day in 2004, the only fatality of that election day was probably pro-Chavez.