When Venezuela's state-owned Citgo was aiding poor Americans with a 'fuel for heating systems' program

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A report from 2011 proves that the Venezuelan government designed a special program to aid the poorest US citizens overcome funding difficulties to heat their homes, through Citgo Petroleum Corporation, subsidiary of the state-run company PDVSA.

Citgo's heating fuel program began in 2005 after the passing of the hurricanes Rita and Katrina, but it didn't stop there. It continued uninterrupted for several years under Hugo Chávez' administration:

For seventh year in a row, the CITGO Petroleum Corporation (or CITGO), subsidiary of the state-run company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), will aid poor communities of the United States (US) with a program of fuel for heating systems. CITGO president Alejandro Granado, through a press released in the website of Venezuela's embassy to the United States, said the increasing costs of energy continue affecting the quality of life of millions of US citizens and community organizations in that country. "Throughout the years, our program has become the most important energy assistance program boosted by any company. This program is aligned with the principles of solidarity of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," read the press release. CITGO's heating fuel program began in 2005 after the passing of the hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Thousands of poor people in the United States asked help to face high prices of heating fuel. [...] CITGO's president remarked that the goal is that the poorest families in the US are not obliged to choose between keeping their homes with heating system or paying other basic needs such as food or medicines.

So, at the time when George W. Bush and his criminal cabinet were profiting from the Iraq war, leaving the poorest Americans at the 'mercy of Lord', the 'evil Socialists' of Venezuela started a program to help them overcome consequences of natural disasters.

And now, the imperialists want to liberate Venezuelans from 'evil Socialism' through economic warfare and potential invasion. The well-paid mouthpieces of the Western media continue, of course, to spread lies and propaganda about Venezuela. Because the 'good capitalists' will come to save the people from poverty, like they did in the US, Libya, Iraq, Syria, etc. What a joke!

Meanwhile, Washington's puppet already tries to grab Citgo in order to deliver it to the hands of the US big oil cartel. As the Grayzone Project reported:

On January 23, US President Donald Trump recognized the little-known, US-educated opposition politician Juan Guaidó as the supposed “interim president” of Venezuela. Within 48 hours, Guaidó quickly tried to seize control of Venezuela’s major US-based oil refiner and use its revenue to help bankroll his US-backed coup regime. Guaidó is attempting to fire the directors of Citgo Petroleum, which is owned by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, and seeks to appoint his own new board. Reuters described Citgo as “Venezuela’s most important foreign asset”; Bloomberg calls it “the crown jewel of PDVSA’s assets.” Citgo is the largest purchaser of Venezuelan oil, although crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration have prevented the company from sending revenue to Venezuela, starving the government of funding. Citing US officials, the Washington Post reported that the Trump administration’s strategy “is to use the newly declared interim government as a tool to deny Maduro the oil revenue from the United States that provides Venezuela virtually all of its incoming cash.”

Try to realize the insane irony: the imperialists want to 'help' the Venezuelan people and liberate them from 'tyranny' by economically suffocating a company that was helping not only Venezuelans, but also the poorest US citizens!