[IP] Chavez's cheap oil for US poor angers Washington
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Subject: Chavez's cheap oil for US poor angers Washington
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:33:34 -0500 (EST)
From: EEkid@xxxxxxx
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
*Chavez's cheap oil for US poor angers Washington
*Email Print Normal font Large font By Alec Russell in Washington
November 25, 2005
Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, has pulled off his greatest public
relations coup yet in his campaign to irritate the Bush Administration
with a deal to supply cheap fuel to thousands of poor residents of
Boston and New York.
To the anger of many in Washington, Citgo Petroleum Corporation, a
company controlled by the Venezuelan Government, will supply more than
45 million litres of oil at 40 per cent below market prices.
The deal is one of the most spectacular moves yet in Mr Chavez's attempt
to market his "21st-century socialism" using his country's oil wealth.
While it will not change many minds in Washington about his populist and
autocratic regime, Caracas hopes it will bolster Mr Chavez's claim as
the coming leader of an anti-capitalist Latin America. Mr Chavez, who
once dubbed President George Bush a "genocidal madman" and led a huge
anti-US protest earlier this month, first proposed his fuel offer in
August when oil prices were at a record high after Hurricane Katrina.
Joe Kennedy, the chairman of Citizens Energy, one of the organisations
that will distribute the oil, said the deal highlighted the failure of
oil companies in the US and the Government to step in to help.
"Our government has made billions of dollars just this year on the
royalty payments the oil companies pay to the Government," he said. But
when it is a question of poor Americans, "what do we hear from
Washington? Sorry boys. There's no money in the till."
To promote his dream, Mr Chavez has offered cheap oil and refineries to
his neighbours and pledged financial support for regional development
programs.
All the while he has positioned himself as a rival to Washington,
accusing the Bush Administration of plotting a coup against him, and
predicting the imminent demise of American capitalism.
The US on Wednesday threatened to block a record-breaking arms deal
under which Spain would sell ships and aircraft to Venezuela, claiming
that the €1.3 billion ($2 billion) arms deal with Mr Chavez could
destabilise the region.
The deal, due to be signed in Caracas on Monday, would be a huge boost
to Spain's ailing shipyard industry and to the rest of its defence industry.
"Those air or naval platforms include US technology," the US ambassador
to Madrid, Eduardo Aguirre, said on Wednesday. "We have not yet decided
whether to grant our permission for obtaining that technology."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/chavezs-cheap-oil-for-us-poor-angers-washington/2005/11/24/1132703314620.html
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