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Venezuela to expand discounted fuel sales to U.S. poor
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-07 11:12
Venezuela said Friday it will expand a program to provide cheap home heating
oil to poor Americans, bringing savings to low-income families in Vermont and
Rhode Island, as well as four Indian tribes in Maine.
Venezuela's Citgo Petroleum Corp. has already begun selling millions of
liters (gallons) of discounted fuel in Massachusetts and the Bronx in New York
City as part of a plan by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to aid poor
communities that he says are neglected by Washington.
Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., said he will sign an
agreement Thursday in Maine to start providing heating oil to four Indian tribes
_ the Penobscot, Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and the Houlton Band of Maliseet
Indians.
"The Penobscot Nation is very grateful," tribal chief James Sappier said by
phone from the reservation near Bangor, Maine. "This is probably one of the
greatest decisions for our tribe in years."
Many in the tribe of 2,261 people are facing tough times economically as jobs
have moved out of the area, and the discounted fuel could save a family US$1,000
(euro825) or more this winter, he said.
Sappier said heating oil prices have been hovering around US$2.40 (euro2) in
the area recently, and Venezuela estimates participants in will save 60-80 cents
(euro0.50-0.66) per gallon.
Alvarez said Venezuela also will extend the deal next week to Vermont and
Rhode Island. Other communities in New York City _ Harlem, Queens and Brooklyn _
will soon begin benefiting, he said.
Chavez's opponents accuse him of using Venezuela's oil wealth to win friends
while trying to embarrass U.S. President George W. Bush, whom he calls a
"madman." But Chavez's supporters defend the heating oil program an example of
generosity by a president leading a socialist revolution for the poor.
Alvarez was accompanied by a group of American activists on a tour of a
state-funded cooperative in Caracas where the poor receive free health care and
hundreds work in textile and shoemaking shops.
The visitors included singer Harry Belafonte, actor Danny Glover, Princeton
University scholar Cornel West and farm worker advocate Dolores Huerta.
"It was impressive for everyone to see that progress is being made," said
Tavis Smiley, who joined the group and hosts a talk show on PBS television.
Belafonte, who has praised the heating oil program, said the group came to
learn about the situation in Venezuela. He was sharply critical of the situation
in the U.S., noting poverty and a huge prison population.
West, a professor of religion and author of the 1993 best seller "Race
Matters," spoke admiringly of Chavez's programs, saying they show "this
revolution is real; it's not something that people are just talking about."
Meanwhile, Sappier said snow was falling in Maine, and his tribe was grateful
for Chavez's help.
"We appreciate him very much as a leader," Sappier said. "It's been said he's
one of us. His thinking is like ours."
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