Cancellation of Heating Oil Assistance Program Deals Political Blow to Chávez

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez speaking at the United Nations

As explained in yesterday’s HEAT Zone post, global recession and tumbling oil prices have forced the Venezuelan government and its American affiliate CITGO to halt their heating oil assistance program in the U.S.  The program was, as the Christian Science Monitor describes, “a public relations bonanza for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.”  Although Chávez has framed himself as a populist and advocate for the poor since his first presidential run in 1999, many view his oil giveaways and discounts as shrewd political maneuvering rather than socialist altruism.  According to the Wall Street Journal, Chávez’s administration “has used an oil windfall to win voters’ loyalty at home and allies abroad.”

It can also be argued that Chávez enacted the social programs that sent cheap crude or heating oil to the U.S. and Latin American neighbors at the expense of his own people.  Poverty and crime are still major problems in Chávez’s homeland, argues a Wall Street Journal review of an anti-Chávez book, The Threat Closer to Home.  Although Chávez has vowed to empower the poor of Venezuela, the country has become less democratic under his rule.  President Chávez is currently campaigning to remove term limits from all elected positions in Venezuela in what appears to be a bid to remain head of state indefinitely.  Chávez advocated a similar referendum in 2007 that applied only the of presidency and not to regional or local offices.  According to Reuters, the 2007 referendum failed largely due to a lack of support among local politicians, who saw little benefit in supporting the measure.  By seeking to remove term limits from other offices along with his own, it appears that Chávez is attempting to win the support of other politicians around the country and receive the extra boost he needs from voters to get the measure passed.

It is unfortunate that the CITGO heating oil program has come to an end, at least temporarily.  Regardless of the true motivation behind Chávez’s implementation of the program, it did provide much-needed heating oil aid to hundred of thousands of Americans.  Hopefully, recently-expanded U.S. federal assistance will be able to fill the gaps left by the CITGO program, and no needy Americans will be left in the cold this winter.

On the positive side, the end of the program takes some powerful political ammunition away from the bellicose President Chávez that we would have continued to use in his attacks on America and the capitalist system.