Venezuela's Leader to Send Heating Oil to South Bronx - New York Times

Venezuela's Leader to Send Heating Oil to South Bronx - New York Times: "Venezuela's Leader to Send Heating Oil to South Bronx
By JONATHAN P. HICKS

A group of South Bronx residents will soon receive a large - and inexpensive - shipment of heating oil, courtesy of President Hugo Ch?vez of Venezuela, a frequent thorn in the side of the Bush administration.

Under an agreement between President Ch?vez and United States Representative Jos?E. Serrano, Citgo, the Houston-based American subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, will provide eight million gallons of discounted heating oil this winter to thousands of low-income residents of the South Bronx.

The populist government of the Venezuelan president is one of Latin America's most vocal critics of American-style capitalism. Mr. Ch?vez has led anti-Bush rallies in his country and has accused the United States of trying to kill him and invade his country.

The oil should start arriving late next week or early in the week of Dec. 5, Mr. Serrano, a Bronx Democrat, said in an interview yesterday. He said that the oil would be provided at 40 percent below the market rate.

'This is something that came as a result of conversations between me and President Ch?vez,' Mr. Serrano said. 'As part of our talk, he suggested that he wanted to ask Citgo to make home heating oil available to the poor of the South Bronx at a lower rate.'

Mr. Serrano said that the agreement provided 'an incredible message to other oil companies.'

'It tells them,' he said, 'that that if these people in Venezuela can share their profits with poorer communities, then they should, too.'

Earlier this year, two nonprofit Massachusetts groups signed an agreement with Citgo to provide discounted heating oil this winter to thousands of low-income residents.

Mr. Serrano said that there were some challenges in fine-tuning the program in the Bronx that were not encountered in Massachusetts.

In New York, he said, most of the low-income residents rent their apartments as opposed to being homeowners, as in Massachusetts.

The congressman added that the priority was to administer the program in such a way that the savings were passed to residents.

'In New York, most of the landlords are private landlords, and we don't really know how to get them to pass along those savings to the renters,' Mr. Serrano said. 'We suggested to the president that we start off with three nonprofit affordable housing community corporations in the South Bronx.'

Initially, Mr. Serrano said, the program will involve residents in about 200 apartments. He added that the agreements with the nonprofit groups call for residents to receive vouchers for rent reductions and for 'infrastructure and quality-of-life improvements' in the buildings.
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