Citgo is not just a gas station run by a Marxist-Leninist dictator who hates America, calls George Bush the devil and believes Jesus is a socialist.
Citgo Petroleum Corp. — a wholly owed subsidiary of Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela — is a company that cares.
Perhaps you’ve seen Citgo’s most-recent television commercials featuring its independent station owners as they fuel local economies, provide needed jobs and donate to causes in their all-American communities.
“Locally owned and operated Citgo locations are there at every turn in their communities, fueling good day in and day out,” reads the website of Citgo, owned by Petroleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
“We understand that we operate as a privilege in the communities where we serve, not as a right. We promote and participate in a wide variety of social development programs to improve the quality of life of people, especially those who feel the severe backlash of poverty.”
Citgo and its more than 4,000 employees give annually to the United Way.
Citgo gives more than 100 million gallons of heating oil to impoverished households and social service providers in 23 states, in partnership with Citizens Energy Corp., a nonprofit run by former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II.
Citgo even gives to Jerry’s Kids. At its Houston headquarters, 739 employees recently raised $100,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Citgo also gave a 400-acre island in the middle of the Delaware River to the state of New Jersey as an Earth Day present this year.
Petty’s Island has become a sanctuary for birds and wildlife, despite its rusting oil tanks. Citgo even gave New Jersey a couple million bucks to clean it up for hikers and bikers, too.
In committing this unprovoked act of goodwill, Citgo did not even ask for a name change to memorialize its leader. It could very easily be called Petty Dictator’s Island.
And for a petty dictator, Chavez sure knows a thing or two about marketing. He’s ingeniously using capitalism to fund socialism. Some complain he’s also using it to fund terrorism.
Venezuelan journalist Ricardo Guaripa and the conservative-leaning advocacy group Freedom Watch recently added Citgo to their billion-dollar lawsuit against Chavez for alleged human rights abuses and alleged acts of terrorism.
The suit, backed by a pro-Bush group that beat the war drums for Iraq, makes all kinds of allegations about what Chavez does with Citgo’s dough.
Imagine buying gasoline at your neighborhood Citgo — you know, from those smiling, community-minded guys in the commercials. And suddenly what was once your money goes to Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and other groups that would just as soon shove a pipe bomb in your tank.
Citgo has yet to respond to these allegations in court. A Citgo spokesman was unable to get back to me on deadline. But the Associated Press reported that Chavez laughed when he read news about the lawsuit at a meeting in April.
“The illegal actions of the defendants were furthered by their ownership or control of Citgo contributing to the crimes and torts,” the lawsuit alleges.
So why is Homeland Security still shaking us down at the airport for tubes of hair gel and toothpaste instead of dealing with the alleged menace that is Citgo?
“The American government is ill equipped,” the lawsuit claims. “Venezuelan oil services much of the country’s import needs and politicians are loathe to ‘rock the boat’ particularly during the period worldwide economic ‘depression.'”
Makes you wonder how a rogue nation such as Venezuela can get control of an all-American icon like Citgo. But capitalism is such an amazing thing: They bought it at 7-Eleven.
The convenience store chain”s former parent, The Southland Corp., on its way to bankruptcy, sold the first half of Citgo in 1986. Petroleos de Venezuela bought the rest in 1990.
“In Venezuela, we have a strong oil card to play,” Chavez famously remarked in an October 2005 newspaper interview. “It is a card that we are going to play with toughness against the toughest country in the world – the United States.”
Some of Citgo’s independent station operators have sued the company, claiming that Chavez’s anti-American remarks are killing their businesses. Several websites have suggested that Americans should boycott Citgo.
These anti-Citgo sentiments haven’t caught on.
Boycotting Citgo mostly hurts the U.S. economy since all of Citgo’s 7,000 or so stations are independently owned by those people like us featured Citgo’s commercials.
In a global energy market, Citgo can simply produce and refine more oil for the many other companies it supplies.
Besides, what else are we going to do? Buy even more from the Saudis?
Al Lewis: 201-938-5266 or al.lewis@dowjones.com; read Al’s blog at
