Should we quit buying gas from Cigo because of Chavez' remarks about our gov't.s administration?

Question

I've done a little research, but I'm still confused. Citgo apparently seems to be 'owned' by Chavez, the ruler of Venezuala that has insulted and makes fun of Bush's administration. I understand we can make this a bush vs. anti-bush issue, but my question is not about that. One website I read claims that Chavez is contributing money to the needy. Another one claims that he is doing it to make Bush and his administration look bad. I'm not sure who is right, or what to do. Your thoughts?

Answer 1

I stopped buying Citgo gas many months ago because of Chavez.

Answer 2

Chavez is the greatest thing to ever happen to Venezuela and he has a great national resource to back up his words. He has lots of government programs he said are an attempt to pay back the people of his country for years of abuse from outside oil companies stealing from and hurting his people. His main contributions are free medical clinics and help for the desperately poor.

He also doles out funds to other countries who share in his ideas for not using the IMF and World Bank Group to borrow money that is tied to economic policies that would kill people (like raising the price of heating oil so high the people of an oil producing country cannot keep warm or cook hot food). These are worries and issues addressed a Bush Administration will not admit are legitimate.

He is the David Letterman meets Frank Sinatra of his country. He even has his own cheesey entertainment talk show on tv. He is a colorful character and his people love him. There are only a handful of people in Venezuela who are worried about excessive socialism.

Socialism usually is embraced by people who are poor and need the government to look after them. Once they are rich enough they might evolve into a more free, capitalist system. Democracy and the capitalist system is part of a slow evolution and is the result of a broad social and economic change in the people of a country.

Chavez attempted to expose the real reasons for the US war in Iraq by offering more cheap oil from Venezuela, after the US said Saddam was a threat because he would disrupt the production of oil. (The US came up with that new and improved reason after they could not find any WMD and Scott Ritter and others in the intelligence community exposed this.)

Chavez offered the oil at a much lower rate than we were getting it in the US and the administration said NO. Chavez then publicly concluded that the US government wants to control the price and availability, etc... of oil. (The military gets this cheap Citgo oil, though, probably through deals brokered before the situation became even more hostile.)

That Venezuelan oil is thicker than usual and costs more to thin out for typically used purposes unless the market is injured and prices are high. When world oil prices are high, the costs to thin it out are not noticed and Venezuelan oil can be refined and sold for much cheaper than we were getting it.

Answer 3

I or rather We in this community of 3000 we are paying 299.9 today and even higher a while back it was 360+
I would boycot if a citgo was availabe but would stop to get coffee,snacks and beer.
But there is another gas problem we have one wholesale distributer Chevron localy and a CFN that is most always $.02 less. I say Boycott Gas not the minimart. People in the city have the choice and just weeks ago you were paying a dollar more. No big deal.

Answer 4

In Venezuela, they have a national lottery that used to be illegal. Chavez made it legal,and he skims of of it. Since he took control of all the media including newspapers,radio ans especially television,he forges photo ops where he's donating money to have schools built or roads paved with money from the lottery.
He also skims off of oil revenues. If he can funnel money out of something in his country,he'll do it. Now ,he is making a new law that if you own so much land and are not using all of it,the government has the right to come in,and distribute the unused part into parcels to give to the poor. He makes himself look like a champion of the poor when he's actually screwing them.
But yes, I would boycott Citgo gas stations. Only we Americans should be the ones to make fun of that idiot George W.Bush and no one else.

Answer 5

It doesn't really matter.

Most people don't realize that most of the oil companies are in some way partnered with each other. So if you go to a Shell or Chevron you might actually be getting gas from a Citgo and vise versa.

When these companies drill for oil a lot of times they will make it a joint effort and therefore split the profits off of it.

Answer 6

Chavez is giving oil to the poor. He's also coming to the United States and calling its President the Devil. I wonder what would happen to a leader that went to Venezuela and insulted him? He jails and imprisons dissadents and he funds "death squads". You'll hear some people say, "but gosh he says mean things to Bush, isn't that swell?". If you can get behind a regime that kills and jails people that dissent, then by all means buy your gas at Citgo. It's not like buying it from the middle east is much better anyway. You best bet is to at least get a hybrid.

Answer 7

Of course not. Whether or not he is doing it to make us look bad, he IS selling oil cheap to needy countries.

Also buying Citgo means we are not buying middle eastern oil or funding companies that use middle eastern oil. In my book buying Venezuelan oil is the lesser of two evils.

Since no matter what lies are spread around, we cannot get by on the oil that remains in North America even if the highest estimates are true and anyway we should be keeping it back as a kind of emergency reserve for ourselves and not let the oil companies make a profit then leave us high and dry when it runs out.

Answer 8

Baby Hugo is modeling his country after Cuba (he has publicly stated that Castro is his hero). Citgo is state owned, ergo, Hugo gets all the funds and uses it to arm revoltionaries in other countries and build up his own arm of power. He is a madman, he will stop at NOTHING in his quest for power, including torture and starvation of his own people. The world has seen this pattern hundreds of times.
No more (S)hitgo gas for me.

Answer 9

Hell yes I would buy from Citgo. Bush sucks and so does his administration. Soon.....we will have control of Iraqi oil because we somehow stumbled in there in our search for Bin Laden, and lo and behold theres OIL there too!

If tthe war on "terror" isn't about oil, may cauliflower grow out my head!

British crude rocks and so does Sinclair. They make efforts to purchase ALL their product from non toilet head countries

Answer 10

It's funny that you picked up on his contributions to the needy; the propaganda machine can't filter out everything on the internet. As best as I can tell Chavez is the real deal. Poverty in Venezuela has dropped from 60% in 1999 to about 37% today; GDP in that period has gone from $93 billion to $167 billion, most of that being non-oil sector. Obviously the huge increases in oil prices has helped Venezuela; what's different is that the money is going to the poor and infrastructure instead of to the oligarchy and big oil.

I'll quote Chavez, "We don't want to create a welfare state that will create a nation of beggars; we want everyone to participate and benefit" So he swaps oil for 40,000 doctors and nurses from Cuba to deliver health care to the entire country. He pays off the bonds to the IMF for Bolivia and Ecuador; this enables them to kick out the multinationals that were controlling their water and natural gas supplies. This in turn enables those countries to repay Chavez on favorable terms. He initiated a program to convert the shantytowns of tin and cardboard into small houses built of cinder block and stucco with running water and electricity; this alone accounts for economic growth in the non-oil sector of 17.5% per year. This housing program is a self fulfilling one; a job creation and housing creation vicious cycle. His land reform act takes land that's not under cultivation away from the oligarchy and parcels it out to small farmers creating an agrarian middle class; the farmers sell their crops to the "tiendas" or markets into the barrios that are converting themselves from tin and cardboard to concrete and stucco. He passed laws that farms can only be so small and can't be bigger than I think 1000 acres. This is to prevent the corporatization of farming.

His domestic policy is amazing; his media despises him as do ours, they are controlled by the wealthy who feel threatened just as with us. The US has tried to assassinate him 3 times; as a result he was forced to pass a constitutional amendment that stated if a Venezuelan President was assassinated for any reason all oil shipments to the US would cease for 18 months. This rocked the oil markets for weeks; the traders new the game while the US population languishes in ignorance generated by a sea of propaganda.

I would call Bush names too if the SOB had tried to assassinate me 3 times with a coup attempt thrown in for good measure.