Boycott Targets CITGO [Hugo Chavez's Oil Company]

Palantine Countryside ^ | 4/27/2006 | Tom Johnson

[ex-Texan]

President George Bush said in this year's State of the Union address he would push policies to help the United States kick its addiction to foreign oil, but some citizens are taking matters into their own hands.

Some people are boycotting CITGO because it's owned by Venezuela's national oil company and they don't want their money funding President Hugo Chavez's aim to end American "imperialism."

Earlier this year Chavez, joined in Caracas by anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan at the World Social Forum, an annual meeting of anti-war and anti-globalization activists, condemned America's military efforts in Iraq and other parts of the world. "Enough already with the imperialist aggression!" Chavez said, as reported by the Associated Press. "Down with the U.S. empire! It must be said in the entire world: Down with the empire!"

The American Family Association, a Mississippi-based conservative Christian group, started disseminating Chavez's statements as an "action alert" in January 2006. AFA is one of the largest "pro-family" organizations in the country. It has more than two million online supporters and about 150,000 paid subscribers to the AFA Journal, the ministry's monthly magazine. Chavez's statement recently set off a chain of e-mails involving several people with ties to Barrington. "I truly believe that we are duty bound to honor this type of individual boycott of products of people who are bent on the destruction of our system," wrote Joel Hillman, a Chicago-based architect formerly involved with Barrington's Cook Street Plaza retail and condominium development.

Hillman's initial March 31 e-mail with the AP article and the AFA-originated boycott message was forwarded April 3 by a longtime Barrington resident and attorney, Bill Braithwaite, to friends and family totaling about 12 people, including Cook Street Plaza architect and manager Ben Borkon. Borkon forwarded it that same day to about 40 recipients, including Pioneer Press. Braithwaite said he didn't forward the message with any recommendation; he simply found the topic intriguing. "This certainly is intriguing, because we are sending money, in effect, to the enemy," he said.

Some recipients took the message to heart.

"I have told my employees that they are not to purchase gas for the company vehicles at any CITGO station," wrote Jason Doland, whose Palatine-based company, W.C. Doland Engineering, is a consulting firm that performs civil engineering, land surveying and land planning services. "We have even started purchasing E85 vehicles. It is a less efficient fuel source, but I'll gladly spend a little more if it stays in this country."

"Short and simple -- we try not to support any country or its products if they hate the USA," wrote Sandra and Bill Freeman, relatives of Borkon. "Venezuela owns CITGO, and it's simple enough not to purchase their gas."

The Freemans went on to say they usually buy their gasoline from British Petroleum (BP). However, BP is one of several companies that buys oil from Venezuela. According to the U.S. Department of Energy's statistics from February 2006, BP, Chevron, Marathon, Phillips and Shell are also among regular customers of Venezuela's products. The top five countries from which the United States imports crude oil as of February were Mexico (1,774 thousand barrels per day), Canada (1,700), Saudi Arabia (1,418), Nigeria (1,342), and Venezuela (1,175). The top five accounted for 75 percent of United States crude oil imports in February, according to the USDOE.

However, Braithwaite argued it's one thing to buy oil from Venezuela; it's another thing to buy it from a company owned by Venezuela.

"Ownership means Venezuela and its dictator get all of the profits, not just crude oil profits," he said.

CITGO Petroleum Corp. is a company owned by PDV America Inc., an "indirect, wholly owned" subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of Venezuela, according to the CITGO Web site.

Fernando J. Garay, spokesman for CITGO in Houston, Texas, said the company has chosen to respond to critics by explaining its ownership structure and highlighting its many examples of community outreach in the United States.

For example, this past winter it launched a low-cost heating oil program that provided 40 million gallons of heating oil to 181,000 households and hundreds of homeless shelters at discounted prices to help poor communities in areas of the United States most affected by cold winters.

Asked if opponents are making a fair conclusion that buying CITGO products helps Chavez oppose American government policies, Garay declined to answer directly.

"In general, people who take an extreme stance tend to be wrong," Garay said. "However, I'm not going to come down to their level to argue on their terms." CITGO supplies gasoline through a network of independent marketers. This network supplies company-operated locations or independent dealers. Some local CITGO vendors shrug the boycott off as silly. "We wanted to put an American flag up on our pole, but the city objected and said the pole was too high," said Syed Kaleen, manager of the CITGO station at Rohlwing road and Northwest Highway in Palatine. "So what do you say about that? We're not anti-American."

Uday Jadhav, an employee at a CITGO station at Northwest Highway and Quentin Road in Palatine, said he was aware of people boycotting Citgo products, but no one has expressed an intent to stop buying gas at his store.

"Perhaps it's because we've got a good relationship with our customers," Jadhav said.

Bob Zelm, owner of Zelm's CITGO at Northwest Highway and Vail Street in Arlington Heights, said he hasn't heard of a Venezuelan boycott.

"The only thing I've heard is the opposite, people wanting to buy CITGO because it wasn't Arabian-owned or didn't get oil from Arabian countries, which seem to be (sponsoring) more terrorism," Zelm said.

Kaleen said he lost a total of three customers in the last year. Generally, they told him they were not buying from CITGO anymore because the company purchases products from countries that "sponsor terrorism."

However, he said people are more concerned about gas prices than where the gas comes from. For instance, he said he sold 3,000 gallons on Saturday when he lowered his prices seven cents lower than nearby competitors.

"The thing is people are price-conscious," Kaleen said. "Who has time for all this?"

[wallcrawlr]

I see your point but is it really beyond our control to determine where we work and who we work for?

[toddlintown]

Here's something to think about. Hit American companies that make money from Mexican products -- and are sold to Americans, where it hurts.

Anheuser-Busch is moaning that profits are down. Aside from being a corporate sponsor of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), they are big supporters of the homosexual agenda. They also own 50% of Corona brewer Grupo Modelo (and 27% of Tsingtao, one of China's top brewers).

Quit drinking Corona. It's a BIG profit maker. In Chicago, for instance, Corona is the numer one selling import.

Boycott Corona!

BTW, who's MALDEF? In 1998, MALDEF’s co-founder Mario Obledo had this to say: "California is going to be a Hispanic state, and anyone who doesn't like it should leave. They should go back to Europe."

That same year, Bill Clinton awarded Obledo a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[EightTrackGuy]

The boycott must be working. I passed a number of CITGO stations driving to/from Dallas from Midland (TX) last weekend and not one of them had a customer.

[nutmeg]

BTTT