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Chavez comes to the rescue of U.S. poor

Gesture when American oil companies are reluctant to do so

QUINCY (Massachusetts): Thousands of low-income Massachusetts residents will receive discounted home heating oil this winter under an agreement signed with Venezuela, whose Government is a political adversary of the Bush administration.

A subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company will supply oil at 40 per cent below market prices. It will be distributed by two non-profit organisations, Citizens Energy Corp. and the Mass Energy Consumer Alliance.

Rising prices

The agreement signed on Tuesday gives President Hugo Chavez's Government standing as a provider of heating assistance to poor U.S. residents at a time when U.S. oil companies have been reluctant to do so and Congress has failed to expand aid in response to rising oil prices.

U.S. Representative William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, met Mr. Chavez in August and helped broker the deal. He said his constituents' needs for heating assistance trump any political points the Chavez administration can score.

``This is a humanitarian gesture,'' Mr. Delahunt said, speaking after a news conference with Venezuelan officials outside the home of a constituent who will receive heating aid.

Citgo is the Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company and has about 13,500 independently owned U.S. gas stations.

It is offering Massachusetts more than 45.4 million litres of discounted heating oil over the next four months, starting in December.

The two non-profit organisations will screen recipients for financial need and cooperate with oil distributors that will make discounted deliveries to qualifying homes and institutions, such as homeless shelters and hospitals.

Mr. Chavez proposed offering fuel directly to poor U.S. communities during a visit to Cuba in August. He has said the aim is to bypass middlemen to reduce costs for the American poor — a group he argues has been severely neglected by Bush's Government.

Mr. Chavez has become one of Latin America's most vocal critics of U.S.-style capitalism, which he calls a major cause of poverty. U.S. officials accuse Mr. Chavez of endangering Venezuelan democracy by assuming ever-greater powers.

During a short-lived 2002 coup against Mr. Chavez, the U.S. Government promptly recognised the new leaders, who were soon driven out amid a popular uprising.

Mr. Chavez, a self-proclaimed revolutionary who has made it a priority to use Venezuela's oil wealth to bolster social programmes for the country's needy, has repeatedly accused the Bush administration of supporting opposition efforts to oust him from power.

The leftist leader has also ruffled feathers in Washington with his close ties to Cuba's Fidel Castro.

An example

Mr. Delahunt said the agreement could set an example for U.S. oil companies.

Congressional leaders have asked the companies to use some of their profits to fund heating fuel assistance programs for low income residents.

``I just hope that this sends a message, and that other oil companies will step and help also,'' he said. — AP

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