Venezuela: More Discount Heating Oil for US Poor

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Chavez pours oil on troubled waters

By Jonathan Beale
BBC News, New England

There is little love lost between the presidents of the United States
and Venezuela. Hugo Chavez calls George W Bush a terrorist - the US
president accuses him of being a left-wing dictator.

But they have one thing in common: oil. And now Hugo Chavez has come up
with a way of using his oil to spread his revolution.

He is offering poor Americans hundreds of thousands of gallons of cut
price fuel to help them heat their homes - Venezuela's response, he
says, to the events of Hurricane Katrina.

So how is the US responding to this offer of help from a country viewed
as a threat by President Bush?

Mr Chavez, a man with his own signature tune and six-hour weekly
television show, is a figure of fear and loathing in Washington.

He is a left-wing leader who has declared war on American imperialism,
and his views in turn have prompted an extreme response among some
Republicans, including the television evangelist Pat Robertson who said:
"We have the ability to take him out and I think the time has come that
we exercise that ability."

That war of words is now being fought out here in New England.

'Pumping goodwill'

There is snow on the ground in Maine and the temperatures are
plummeting. This is where Mr Chavez is launching his latest front in his
cold war against the president of the United States.

An oil tanker reverses into the driveway of a modest clapperboard home,
a sign that the Hugo Chavez road show has arrived in New England.

It is delivering cut-price heating fuel from Citgo, a company wholly
owned by the Venezuelan government.

Mr Chavez is pumping goodwill as well as the oil into the homes of
thousands of needy Americans.

And he has even enlisted the help of US politicians like Maine's
Democratic Governor John Baldacci, whose own involvement is proving
controversial.

This testy exchange illustrates the point:

Me: "Do you admire Hugo Chavez for what he's done?"

John Baldacci: "I don't get into the politics, you know..."

Me: "But it's his decision. I mean, you have got into the politics
whether you like it or not."

John Baldacci: "Well, I haven't."

Me: "But he has given this oil to the people of Maine, the poor
people..."

John Baldacci: "That's right. And we appreciate and thank him for that
very much and we thank Citgo Venezuela for that."

'Anti-democratic'

Among those people who are directly benefiting - like pensioners Malcolm
and Mary Lyons - there is no doubting their appreciation for President
Chavez.

Without his help, Mary Lyons says they simply would not be able to
afford to heat their home.

"It's very comforting," she says. "I think it's a wonderful gesture.
Thanks to the Venezuelan people to make this all happen to us."

But it's a very public gesture being witnessed by the world's media,
raising the question: is this a programme genuinely designed to help the
poor or more for the publicity?

Ricardo Hausman, a former minister in the Venezuelan government, is a
professor at Harvard University.

"I think that from the point of view of his cash flow it is peanuts.
From the point of view of his political agenda, it is gold.

"It is an incredible investment in political visibility out of something
that doesn't really make much sense except in the context of that
political agenda."

It is President Chavez's agenda that worries Washington. He is seen as
an increasingly anti-democratic and destabilising force throughout Latin
America. But it is proving hard to bite the hand that feeds.

Public relations war

Venezuelan oil helps keep the American economy running and Citgo
operates 15,000 gas stations right across the country.

Overall, Venezuela is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the United
States, selling 1.5 million barrels of oil every day.

But President Bush can do little to halt the Chavez road show which has
now moved on to Rhode Island. Here he's getting the support from the
Kennedy clan.

Former Democratic Congressman Joe Kennedy says the Bush administration
should be backing, not criticising the Venezuelan president.

"Why isn't anybody criticising the Kuwaitis or the Saudis or any of the
others who are out there raking it in and not providing any assistance
to anybody?

"And here's one guy who provides a little bit of help and assistance to
the poor and he's under unbelievable criticism. It's politics, it's not
the reality of what he's doing - it's the politics of it."

Here in New England it is President Chavez not President Bush who
appears to be winning this public relations war.

And whatever Hugo Chavez's motives are for providing cheap heating fuel
for the poor - to many Americans actions speak louder than words.