E-mail urges boycotting Citgo brand gasoline over remarks by Venezuela president Hugo Chávez.
- From: Ablang <Ablang041706@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 22:46:25 -0700
CITGO
Claim: E-mail urges boycotting Citgo brand gasoline over remarks by
Venezuela president Hugo Chávez.
Status: Multiple.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2006]
Venezuela Dictator Vows To Bring Down U.S. Government
Venezuela government is sole owner of Citgo Gasoline Company Venezuela
Dictator Hugo Chavez has vowed to bring down the U.S. government.
Chavez, president of Venezuela, told a TV audience: "Enough of
imperialist aggression; we must tell the world: down with the U.S.
empire. We have to bury imperialism this century."
The guest on his television program, beamed across Venezuela, was
Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist. Chavez recently had as his guest
Harry Belafonte, who called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in
the world."
Chavez is pushing a socialist revolution and has a close alliance with
Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Regardless of your feelings about the war in Iraq, the issue here is
that we have a socialist dictator vowing to bring down the government
of the U.S. And he is using our money to achieve his goal!
The Venezuela government, run by dictator Chavez, is the sole owner of
Citgo gas company. Sales of products at Citgo stations send money back
to Chavez to help him in his vow to bring down our government.
Why should U.S. citizens who love freedom be financing a dictator who
has vowed to take down our government? Very important. Please forward
this to your friends and family. Most of them don't know that Citgo is
owned by the Venezuela government.
Origins: Hugo Chávez,
the president of Venezuela, is certainly no fan of the U.S. or the
current administration, and his trading rhetorical political barbs
with U.S. government officials (and others) has been common news
fodder of late. (Chávez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998,
and after a failed coup in 2002, he won a referendum over whether he
should serve out the remainder of his term. The war of words reached a
new peak in August 2005, when Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson
suggested to viewers that the U.S. should assassinate Chávez.)
Not surprisingly, U.S. attitudes towards President Chávez tend to be
polarized along political lines, with one side declaring him a
dangerous dictator who supports America's enemies, while the other
side defends him as a democratically-elected leader who is the target
of the current administration's enmity primarily because he dares to
stand up to the U.S. Excerpts from two recent U.S. newspaper Op-Ed
pieces illustrate this dichotomy:
[Corrales, 2006]
Hugo Chávez [was] elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.The
lieutenant colonel had attempted a coup six years earlier. When that
failed, he won power at the ballot box and is now approaching a decade
in office. In that time, he has concentrated power, harassed
opponents, punished reporters, persecuted civic organizations and
increased state control of the economy.
[W]hen it comes to accountability and limits on presidential power,
the picture grows dark. Mr. Chávez has achieved absolute power over
all state institutions that might check his power. He controls the
legislature, the Supreme Court, two armed forces, the gigantic
state-owned oil company PDVSA ? the only important source of state
revenue, which comes in handy at election time ? and the institution
that monitors electoral rules. As if that weren't enough, a new media
law allows the state to supervise media content, and a revised
criminal code permits the state to imprison any citizen for showing
"disrespect" toward government officials.
By compiling and posting on the Internet lists of voters and their
political tendencies ? including whether they signed a petition for a
recall referendum in 2004 ? Venezuela has achieved reverse
accountability. The state is watching and punishing citizens for
political actions it disapproves of rather than the other way around.
If democracy requires checks on the power of incumbents, Venezuela
doesn't come close.
[Weisbrot, 2006]
Venezuela is a democracy ? despite the best efforts of the Bush team
to use President Hugo Chavez's close relations with Cuba's Fidel
Castro as evidence to the contrary. Its elections are transparent and
have been certified by observers from the Organization of American
States, the Carter Center and the European Union. Freedom of speech,
of the press, of assembly and of association prevail, at least as
compared with the rest of the hemisphere.
In fact, most of the media remains controlled by the opposition, which
attacks the government endlessly on all the major TV channels. It is
the most vigorous and partisan opposition media in the hemisphere, one
that has not been censored under Chavez.
Like all of Latin America, Venezuela has governance problems: a weak
state, limited rule of law, corruption and incompetent government. But
no reputable human rights organization has alleged that Venezuela
under Chavez has deteriorated with regard to civil liberties, human
rights or democracy, as compared with prior governments. Nor does the
country compare unfavorably on these criteria with its neighbors in
the region. In Peru, the government has shut down opposition TV
stations; in Colombia, union organizers are murdered with impunity.
From a Latin American point of view, Venezuelans should have the rightto choose their own president ? even one who sometimes insults the
American president ? without interference from the United States. And
Chavez's anger at Washington, from Latin Americans' point of view,
appears justified. U.S. government documents released under our
Freedom of Information Act indicate that Washington not only supported
but was involved in the military coup that temporarily overthrew
Venezuela's elected government in April 2002.
The television incident referenced in the message quoted at the head
of this page occurred on 29 January 2006, when anti-war activist Cindy
Sheehan appeared on Chavez's weekly TV broadcast, following a similar
recent meeting between the Venezuelan president and entertainer Harry
Belafonte:
Cindy Sheehan, who gained international fame when she camped outside
President Bush's ranch in an anti-war protest, plans to pitch her tent
again, Venezuela's president said Sunday as he urged activists
worldwide to help bring down "the U.S. empire." Hugo Chávez, an arm
around Sheehan's shoulders, told a group of activists that she had
told him "she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr.
Danger's ranch." In some of his strongest recent comments aimed at
Washington, Chávez condemned the Bush administration and said his
audience should work toward ending U.S. dominance. "Enough already
with the imperialist aggression!" Chávez said, listing countries from
Panama to Iraq where the U.S. military has intervened. "Down with the
U.S. empire! It must be said, in the entire world: Down with the
empire!"
Sheehan also noted that singer and activist Harry Belafonte recently
called Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world," and said, "I agree
with him. George Bush is responsible for killing tens of thousands of
innocent people."
Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeled Chávez a
"challenge for democracy" and a danger to Latin Hugo ChávezAmerica and
announced the establishment of contacts with government officials in
other South American countries for the purpose of creating a united
front to oppose Venezuela. Chávez responded to Rice's comments in a
television appearance by blowing her a screen kiss and announcing,
"Don't mess with me, girl," as well as warning that he would consider
suspending Venezuela's oil exports if the U.S. went "too far with the
Venezuelan government." (Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of
crude oil to the U.S., sending the states about 1.5 million barrels
daily.)
Advocating a boycott of gasoline marketed by Citgo Petroleum
Corporation (which has been owned by Petróleos de Venezuela, the
national oil company of Venezuela, since 1990) over political issues
is problematic for a number of reasons (not least of which is the
notion that threatening not to buy gasoline from someone who is
threatening not to sell it to you doesn't sound like an effective ploy
for either side). For one thing, although Citgo may be owned by
Petróleos de Venezuela, it is a formerly American company which is
still headquartered in the U.S. (in Houston, Texas), employs 4,000
people, and supplies 14,000 independent retailers with gasoline and
other petroleum products ? Americans with no substantive connnection
to Venezuela who would be economically harmed by such an action. And,
of course, as long as the global demand for oil exceeds supply,
Citgo's products will continue to find buyers whether or not they're
purchased by Americans.
Interestingly, this Citgo boycott rumbling follows on the heels of a
similarly-forwarded entreaty urging consumers to take the opposite
tack: Americans should buy only Citgo brand gasoline, it says, in
order to support "Venezuela's democratic government" and avoid sending
more U.S. dollars to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries:
Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after
week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your
gasoline at Citgo stations.
And tell your friends.
Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a
democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his
nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela.
The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him "the Anti-Bush."
Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to
Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela ? not Saudi Arabia or the Middle
East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here to
find one near you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are
contributing to the billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic
government is using to provide health care, literacy and education,
and subsidized food for the majority of Venezuelans.
Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as
Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his
government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil
wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty,
earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez
is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have
consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush
administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that
sought to overthrow Chavez.
So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the
word.
Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job,
you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that
move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable
energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don't have a practical
alternative to filling up our cars.
So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in
Venezuela.
As we've noted in many other articles discussing various schemes
regarding where and how people should purchase gasoline, the global
and fungible nature of the world oil market doesn't really provide
consumers with many effective opportunities to influence political
issues through their buying patterns.
Last updated: 15 March 2006
http://www.snopes.com/politics/gasoline/citgo.asp
==
"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."
-- Niccolo Machiavelli
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