Buy gas from Citgo-Support Venezuela, not Saudi Arabia

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Published on Monday, May 16, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Buy Your Gas at Citgo: Join the BUY-cott!

by Jeff Cohen

 

Looking for an easy way to protest Bush foreign policy week after

week? And an easy way to help alleviate global poverty? Buy your

gasoline at Citgo stations.

And tell your friends.

 

 

Of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a

democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his

nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela.

The President is Hugo Chavez. Call him " the Anti-Bush. "

Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned

subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Money you pay to

Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela -- not Saudi Arabia or the Middle

East. There are 14,000 Citgo gas stations in the US. (Click here

http://www.citgo.com/CITGOLocator/StoreLocator.jsp to find one near

you.) By buying your gasoline at Citgo, you are contributing to the

billions of dollars that Venezuela's democratic government is using

to provide health care, literacy and education, and subsidized food

for the majority of Venezuelans.

 

Instead of using government to help the rich and the corporate, as

Bush does, Chavez is using the resources and oil revenue of his

government to help the poor in Venezuela. A country with so much oil

wealth shouldn't have 60 percent of its people living in poverty,

earning less than $2 per day. With a mass movement behind him, Chavez

is confronting poverty in Venezuela. That's why large majorities have

consistently backed him in democratic elections. And why the Bush

administration supported an attempted military coup in 2002 that

sought to overthrow Chavez.

 

So this is the opposite of a boycott. Call it a BUYcott. Spread the

word.

 

Of course, if you can take mass transit or bike or walk to your job,

you should do so. And we should all work for political changes that

move our country toward a cleaner environment based on renewable

energy. The BUYcott is for those of us who don't have a practical

alternative to filling up our cars.

 

So get your gas at Citgo. And help fuel a democratic revolution in

Venezuela.

 

Jeff Cohen is an author and media critic (www.jeffcohen.org)