CARACAS, Venezuela -- After a four-hour closed-door meeting on Monday, Jesse Jackson and Venezuela President Hugo Chavez announced a plan to help the poor in the United States weather the storm of rising fuel costs this winter, said a report in the Chicago Tribune.
Chavez said that the Venezuelan-owned, Texas-based CITGO Petroleum Co. would offer to poor schools, hospitals, churches and other groups 66,000 barrels a day of oil products refined at its U.S. plants, according to the report.
Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said Chavez [image-nocss] has offered heating oil to be sold directly to communities, avoiding retailers, to bring down costs. Details of the plan would have to be settled, the report said.
Jackson called it a brilliant idea.
CITGO spokesperson David McCollum told CSP Daily News that the plan to provide cheap gasoline to U.S. citizens via CITGO facilities is currently being studied. No details exist at this point, and according to McCollum, the plan is still in a conceptual phase.
As reported in CSP Daily News, Chavez offered last week to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of gasoline. Venezuela could supply gasoline to Americans at half the price they now pay if intermediaries were cut out, he said. We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in the United States, Chavez told reporters at the end of a visit to Cuba.
Chavez also reportedly offered up a plan to treat Americans with eye problems, and has asked that U.S. evangelist Pat Robertson, who recently called for Chavez's assassination, be extradited to Venezuela. It was Robertson's remark that prompted Jackson to visit Chavez.
Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) owns CITGO, which has approximately 14,000 gas stations in the United States.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.