FMLN mayors get cheap Venezuelan fuel

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is engaging in his own brand of petro-politics, as he agrees to send oil at discounted prices to municipalities in El Salvador run by FMLN mayors.

From the Miami Herald:
Venezuela agreed Monday to sell fuel oil under preferential terms to an El Salvador association created by a group of leftist mayors.

Details of the amount of fuel that will be sold to the Intermunicipal Energy Association for El Salvador were not immediately available, but shipments were to begin ''as soon as possible,'' said Violeta Menjivar, mayor-elect of San Salvador.

The Venezuelan state oil firm subsidiary PDV Caribe reached the agreement with the El Salvador association, formed by mayors belonging to the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front party.

Under the agreement, cities headed by the FMLN will pay 60 percent of their oil bill within 90 days, while paying for the rest in-kind through agricultural products and locally made goods, Soyapango Mayor Carlos Ruíz said.

President Tony Saca criticized the oil deal and urged the FMLN not to try to generate false hopes among Salvadorans.

Comments

Anonymous said…
How will the new group refine the oil into usable products for the people?
11:45 AM
Anonymous said…
If we look at the overall "Socio/Econmic" strategies promoted by former regimes in El Salvador, since its feudal days under military leadership, to the present pseudo-democratic decade under Arena. We can identify a general pattern of economic strategies created by the elite corporations and other groups, that always neglect the real necessities of a large poor-population. But are effective at creating benefits and priviledges for a minority group.

The FMLN strategy is correct; because its follows the same pattern with a few (Socialist factors incorporated). Likewise, it demonstrates the party's ability for creating new options for resources, undermining U.S. support to the ruling party (Arena). As presidential elections near, the FMLN seeks to increase popularity and solidify its constituency and inner-organisms. Thus, accepting fuel from sympathetic regimes such as Venezuela, is a key political move.

Your Trully

Coyolon e Penote
3:57 PM
Anonymous said…
While subsidized oil might benefit a small number of people in FMLN-controlled municipalities, I wonder if they are missing an opportunity. The structure of the political system and distribution of legislative seats provide little opportunity for the FMLN to accomplish much. Most of the time they simply look to obstruct, perhaps rightly so. It might have been in the FMLN's interest to attempt to put the subsidized oil offer to use for the entire nation or maybe even only the poorest municipalities. That all depends, of course, on whether Chavez would go along.
7:53 AM
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