Chavez Offering Harlem's Poor Cheap Gas
Vitriolic Chavez Offers Discounted Oil To NYC Poor
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_264060754.html
Magee Hickey
Reporting
(CBS) NEW YORK Now that Hugo Chavez has finished his anti-American rants at the U.N., he's beginning a program of rewards for America's poor. The Venezuelan president was expected to be at a Harlem church Thursday morning, making good on a pledge to help low-income families in New York purchase deeply discounted oil.
When Venezualan President Huge Chavez called President Bush "a devil" during his speech in the U.N. General Assembly this week, it was not unusual vitriol from the mouth of this Marxist.
"Yesterday, the devil came right here...and it smells of sulfur still," Chavez said in the General Assembly.
He has taunted president Bush before, sometimes even in English. "You are a donkey, Mr. Bush," he once said.
Chavez is seen by some as the biggest problem to emerge in Latin America since his hero, Fidel Castro, seized power nearly a half century ago. And it all has to do with oil and Chavez's repeated threats to cut off the U.S. from Venezuela's oil supply.
The U.S. gets more than 1 million barrels of oil a day from Venezuela.
But Chavez does have another side to him: He continues to devise new schemes to use Venezuela's oil bonanza to benefit the needy around the world.
Last year, the Venezuelan president offered up to 8 million gallons to needy New Yorkers in the South Bronx. Only 1 million gallons were actually delivered because of delays in launch the program and a mild winter, but that program is now expanding to all five boroughs.
President Chavez was expected to visit a Harlem church Thursday morning to roll out what many are calling Part II of Chavez's oil gift.
Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company, has earmarked 25 million gallons of discounted fuel for low-income New Yorkers this year.
