A Song for Hugo Chavez - By Winona LaDuke

[Catherina]

A Song for Hugo Chavez
Friday, 15 March 2013 12:47
By Winona LaDuke, Indian Country Today Media Network

...

I was a great admirer of Hugo Chavez, thankful for his generosity, his courage, his leadership, and his commitment to Indigenous peoples.

My first memory of Venezuela, being an American educated child, was dim. But, I do remember pictures of Native people in the Venezuelan jungle being gunned down, and hanging like deer from trees- the result of gold prospecting in their territories. The year was 1977. That is a stark image- one where humans are treated like game animals, and I have never forgotten it.

...

At a 2005 Congressional hearing , oil executives were being chastised because corporate earnings were matched with dire conditions in many communities. Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch/Shell reported total earnings last quarter of nearly $33 billion. In the meantime, many Americans were facing fuel poverty, absolute hardship about keeping their houses warm. Twelve U.S. Senators asked oil companies to donate some of their record-setting profits to people in need.

Citgo was the only company to respond. Citgo Petroleum, joined with Citizens Energy under the leadership of Joseph Kennedy and began distribution of fuel oil from the Bronx and Brooklyn to the Alaskan Sub Arctic. Our reservation was included. Our first year, we received roughly $l.7 million in fuel assistance, and this continued for six years since. Each year, tribes in northern Minnesota, North Dakota and elsewhere have benefitted from the largesse of the Venezuelan government owned Citgo Petroleum Corp. As the price of fuel went up, 240 tribal communities received hundreds of millions of dollars of fuel assistance as fuel prices skyrocketed.

Some politicians encouraged our tribes to turn down the money, but Wayne Bonne of the Fond du Lac tribe, commented, "to us, it would be a foolish move. We're not a wealthy tribe," Bohn said. "We could make a political statement, but making a political statement while your people freeze is not very wise."

...

http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/15145-a-song-for-hugo-chavez

[Judi Lynn]

1. Great seeing this statement from Winona LaDuke.

It was valuable seeing the facts of how CITGO got involved in the distribution of heating oil in the United States for people who desperately need it but can't afford the horrendous cost.

I remember so well how and when it started. What i never heard was the fact there were some U.S. politicians who tried to apply political pressure to certain groups to refuse help from CITGO as they saw it as a compliment to Hugo Chavez, if the poor accepted assistance, and they preferred the idea of the poor freezing to death, instead.

That part is absolutely NATURAL for the filthy right. Couldn't be more like them. There needs to be a deeper, hotter pit installed in Hell to handle the real slime of the U.S. American right-wing.

Let it long be remembered that the Democratic Senators, later joined by governors, and Representatives, and the leaders of Native American tribes, all went in good faith to ALL the U.S. American oil companies, entreating them all to offer discounted heating oil for the dead of winter for their poorest constituents, and ALL but CITGO blew them off, ALL of them.

Then, after CITGO answered the call for help for the struggling U.S. Americans, the criminal right started shrieking its guts out over how Hugo Chavez was trying to buy the affections of this country's poor with his oil. ####ing idiots. The decaying, diseased, terminally selfish, poisonous, dirty rich of Venzuela leaped on the bandwagon and started howling Chavez was "giving away" his country's riches for political gain.

The IDEA STARTED HERE, with elected officials trying to help their own struggling people. We all knew that from the first.

Look what the whoring criminals of the right did to this vital act to twist it for their own gain. They constantly reveal themselves, don't they?

[Catherina]

2. I agree on that pit in Hell for them and their collaborators

Here's another tribute


White Earth Band of Ojibwe Chairwoman on Hugo Chávez

The following comments were made by White Earth Chairwoman Erma J. Vizenor during her "State of the Nation Address," March 7, 2013, in Mahnomen, Minnesota. They are taken from the Nation's newspaper, Anishinaabeg Today, March 13, 2013, reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes.

On Tuesday Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez passed away. President Chavez was a friend of the White Earth Nation. He was known for his fiery rhetoric and socialist ideals that offended many nations throughout the world but to White Earth he was our friend. He cared about the poor.

...

After the meeting that day I went to my hotel room, turned on the TV and heard the news that President Chavez had called President Bush a disparaging name before the Assembly at the United Nations. The news reporter said there were death threats on President Chavez and that he had left for Venezuela. I went to bed feeling very sad about the whole situation.

The next morning I said to the Venezuelan official, "I heard on the news President Chavez has left for Venezuela." "Oh, no," the official said, "President Chavez has not left. He will meet with you. He cares about Native Americans. He knows your history and what has happened to your people in your country. He wants to help you."

The tribal leaders and I boarded the coach bus for Harlem where we gathered in a large church. We were escorted to the front pew. Within a few minutes, President Chavez came and greeted us. He spoke through an interpreter about the indigenous people of this land, about poor people and how he wanted to help. Since that time White Earth has received CITGO fuel assistance from Venezuela that has helped hundreds of families and elders keep warm through the cold Minnesota winters.

Now that President Chavez has died, future CITGO fuel assistance funds are uncertain. He was our friend and our prayers go out to the President's family and the people of Venezuela.

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2013/we160313.html
http://www.whiteearth.com/data/upfiles/files/March_13,_2013.pdf

[Judi Lynn]

3. Sure hope this program will remain intact with the election of Maduro.

We all know all the help to the poor in and outside Venezuela will be stripped the moment any oligarchy-supported candidate takes over.

May the true will of the PEOPLE be the word which matters now and in the future. That's what elections are meant to indicate, not the will of those who exploit them, steal their lives for near slave wages, and hold them in high contempt for their efforts.

Glad to learn White Earth Chairwoman Erma Vizenor and other leaders got to meet with the President in New York.

Hope they will be allowed to help their own people through the program.

[Catherina]

4. I'm sure Maduro will keep the program in place

and won't want to give any perception that he's walking back on the great things Chavez did because that would immediately be exploited and he's smart enough to know it.