While all the major U.S. oil companies were gorging themselves on the massive increase in oil prices in late 2005, laughing their way to the bank at the destruction of New Orleans and the killing of U.S. troops on occupation duty in Iraq (both of which justified ever increasing prices and thus profits) and reaping the rewards of the largest oil profits ever, there was one exception. CITGO Petroleum Corporation is an American corporation based in Houston, but is also a indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Unlike the other major American oil companies that answer only to their shareholders and directly benefitted from the destruction of New Orleans and the killing of American soldiers in Iraq, CITGO ultimately answers to President Chavez of Venezuela.
In August 2005, during a visit to Venezuela by U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, President Chavez promised to use some of his country's oil profits to help impovished Americans that would obviously not be helped by either the American oil companies or the American administration, which is run by former oil executives. This was to be accomplished by providing cheap heating oil to America's poor through American non-profit organizations. In the United States, the anti-American right-wing, for whom the death of America's poor only provides greater profits, laughed off the offer and doubted anything would come of it. However, unlike most American politicians, President Chavez actually "puts his money where his mouth is" and is willing to sacrifice profit to help people.
The program began in October of 2005 and continued until April 2006. "Through this program, we distributed nearly 40 million gallons of heating oil to 181,000 households and hundreds of homeless shelters at discounted prices to help poor communities in areas of the country most affected by cold winters," said Félix RodrÃguez, CITGO President and CEO. Through this program heating oil was sold through non-profits at an almost 40% discount while all American oil companies continued to hoard their profits, charging all Americans full market value for every drop and generating record-breaking profits. The beneficiaries were:
5,725 Americans families in New York
24,000 American families in Connecticut
5,000 American families in Delaware
50,735 American families in Maine, including members of the Aroostook Band of MicMacs, the Penobscot Indian Nation, the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and the Passamaquoddy Tribe
50,000 American families in Massachusetts
9,000 American families in Rhode Island
25,000 American families in Pennsylvania
12,000 American families in Vermont
To quote Félix RodrÃguez, CITGO President and CEO, "With this initiative, CITGO demonstrated our continuing commitment to the U.S. marketplace and to communities where we have a presence ... We encourage our employees to give back to their communities with time and monetary donation. As good corporate citizens, we are following the excellent examples set by the members of the CITGO family, making an effort to help those in need."
While there is a clear political component to the program, reaching out directly to the American people in the face of the current (oil executive dominated) administration's overt hostility to President Chavez, the fact remains that he advanced his political agenda by helping poor people, unlike the methods preferred by Washington (outright lies, scapegoating, and starting wars). Ultimately a number of U.S. politicians had to thank President Chavez for his generosity as did many U.S. citizens that directly benefitted. To quote former Congressman Joseph Kennedy:
"The price of heating oil has gone up nearly 100 percent in the last two years, ... The price of natural gas has gone up 75 percent. There is not a single dime's worth of new money in the federal budget to help poor people deal with the high cost of energy and it is an outrage. The greatest moneymaker off of the price of oil going up isn't an oil company, it is the federal government of the United States, because when the price of oil goes up, guess who gets the royalty payments -- the federal government. Billions and billions of dollars of new money has come into our federal treasury off the high price of oil, and yet when it comes to putting up a little bit of money to help the poor, they say there is simply no money in the till. But boy when it comes to giving tax breaks to richest Americans all of a sudden there is billions of dollars available."
When a foreign head of state cares more about the American people - and illustrates this care in tangible terms, not meaningless rhetoric - than our own President, clearly it is time for a change. The Bolivarian Revolution was both peaceful and democratic (with the exception of the U.S.-backed right-wing coup that the Venezuelan people defeated in 2002), but it resulted in real change. Clearly we have a lot to learn from Venezuela.
Got it in a work email. Fuck im tired.
