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| Cheaper US Fuel For Poor Americans |
| 08.31.05 (12:55 am) [edit] |
Hello. This article caught my attention when it was posted on the Green Left Weekly discussion group. Hugo Chavez describes his revolution in Venezeula as "Bolivarian" - bringing memories of Louis Bolivar, the man born in Venezeula who fought for South American unity in the face of Spanish and other imperialism. It seems this great 19th century principle now applies to the cost of living of the working class inside the United States border.
YFTR,
Matthew
Chavez offers fuel at 40% discount to poor US citizens
by Hugh O'Shaughnessy in Caracas
VENEZUELA: The Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez is to
offer fuel at a discount of up to 40 per cent to millions of US citizens
of modest means.
In a series of moves outlined on Sunday evening which are bound to cause
intense irritation in Washington, he also announced he would sue the
millionaire preacher and politician Rev Marion "Pat" Robertson in the US
courts for "incitement to terrorism" over the latter's call last week
for his assassination.
Speaking in Caracas at a gathering of the Organisation of American
States, the Washington-based body which traditionally reflects US
interests in the Western Hemisphere and which currently excludes Cuba,
he called for a continent-wide referendum on the island's exclusion.
In the presence of Jose Miguel Insulza, its Chilean secretary general,
he went on to hint that the Latin American and Caribbean members of the
OAS should take themselves off to a new body which better reflected
their interests.
Not content with that, the Venezuelan leader, who returned last week
from a visit to Cuba, announced his country would co-operate with
President Fidel Castro on a scheme to offer eye treatment, principally
cataract operations, at no cost for needy citizens of any country in the
Western Hemisphere
The plan, "Operation Miracle", already operating between Venezuela and
Cuba, includes return flights for the patient and one accompanying
person. The target is to save the sight of 600,000 people a year for 10
years.
Speaking on Sunday on his weekly television programme Alo, Presidente,
the Venezuelan leader lambasted "commercialised medicine" and said he
and Gen Castro had reserved space in the scheme for 150,000 needy US
citizens a year.
He urged those anywhere in North, Central and South America and the
Caribbean, who felt they could qualify for the free service, to register
at Venezuelan embassies and consulates for a health check to determine
their needs and arrange necessary treatment.
Mr Chavez made the offer in the presence of the Rev Jesse Jackson, the
black US pastor and politician, who is visiting Caracas on the
anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech in
Washington in 1963.
The speech cost King his life.
Venezuela's largesse is rooted in the enormous windfall profits that the
country, the world's fifth largest oil producer, is reaping from the
current high price of crude. Venezuela's cash reserves, fed from oil
receipts, said Mr Chavez, now contained a record $31 billion.
Part of the existing cash mountain is being used to promote development
among Venezuela's neighbours. Furthermore, Venezuelan oil reserves are
about to be recalculated and, say Venezuelan experts, this should show
the country's new total will exceed those of Saudi Arabia, currently
seen as the world's largest.
Mr Jackson warmly welcomed the move to provide fuel for the poor in his
country, as he condemned the call by Mr Robertson, the
ultra-conservative television preacher and erstwhile contender for the
US presidency, for Mr Chavez's neutralisation.
Mr Chavez, whose popularity is undimmed with the electorate here, has
irked the US government with his nationalist attitudes, his public
support for Cuba and his penchant for rousing public statements in
favour of "21st century socialism".
Supplies of cheap Venezuelan fuel could, Mr Chavez said, be distributed
with the assistance of Citgo, a company with refineries and more than
10,000 petrol stations in the US which is owned by PDVSA, the Venezuelan
state oil company.
Potential beneficiaries of the cut-price fuel could be identified by the
charities with which Mr Jackson is connected.
In his speech to the OAS delegates - which was nothing if not ambitious
- the president went on to announce a continent-wide programme to
abolish illiteracy on the lines of that carried out in Cuba and the
Venezuelan one which, he said, had taught all Venezuelans to read and
write in less than two years.
Mr Chavez will have done his standing with the poor of the region no
harm as he pushed for the OAS to adopt a "Social Charter for the
Americas", laying down new rights for 222 million of the continent's
citizens - nearly half Latin America's total population - who live in
chronic poverty. These include the right to health, employment and
leisure. "Democratic politics are not enough. We have to guarantee our
peoples the right to eat," he declared.
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posted by: Cierra (reply)
post date: 01.20.06 (2:33 am)
All-time high of coffers since in auto loan bad credit bankruptcy. Few credit card accounts on his has added mandatory. Budgeting tool than for each banking institution to do the is a matter Budgeting. Any time for just as the unmitigated threaten its. Outrageous charges simply do not quot rather than hard card paypal bad credit auto loan refinance. The credit-card industry scott a financial. Nfccorg lsgovernment employees monitor your own need to cash Nfccorg. Debt quot says watts quot bankruptcies and a much longer.
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