I am writing to you in respect of you accepting lobbying money to defend CITGO refineries in Louisiana. You have in an ill advised way blocked a US Senate bill that only aimed at putting some personal sanctions over some of the main culprits of human rights violations and drug traffic in Venezuela. Allow me to straighten you up.
First, whatever "protection" you may give Citgo, it is likely going to turn out to be a lousy investment. The dictatorial regime of Venezuela is planning to sell Citgo, to pay off the huge debts accumulated, to continue its rapacious corrupt nature, and why not, to get some more cash to buy repressive violent tools against its population. You can be assured that whenever Citgo is sold, a major adjustment plan will be needed and many jobs will be lost in Louisiana. Not to mention that Citgo today depends heavily on Venezuelan crude of low quality and thus may give up that dependency; while it gets new oil sources the new management will not have qualms in cutting down whatever needs to be cut down in Citgo.
 |
| Suitably dressed in chavista red |
In short, the odds of you getting plenty of egg on your face are big. It does not matter how much you may help the Venezuelan dictatorial regime, this one will drop you as it wishes, as it has betrayed whenever convenient ANY political ally it has harbored.
Second, I do hope that you are aware that you are supporting a regime that was friend with Qaddafi, that supports Assad from Syria, that is supporting Hamas without any condition, that is antisemitic, homophobic and what not. And this I mention before I would start listing all of its human rights record, its violations of all legality in Venezuela, its dictatorial nature, that Venezuela has become under Chavez and his successor the main through-way for drugs going to the United States, etc. I hope that even the dumb staffer that advised you on such a position will redo his or her homework and come to grips about the price to be payed by your reputation for a few hundred jobs in Louisiana, which do not assure reelection to begin with. Because, dear Senator, you are supporting an avowed enemy of the United States.
Third, if the above rational, logical, public knowledge only missed by your staff but well managed by Patton Boggs who cashed hundred of thousand of dollars from Citgo giving you only 75,000 (how profitable for you is that?) is not enough allow me to give you the human touch.
I have been blogging for over a decade to denounce the Chavez regime in Venezuela. My blog is well known and even brought me to the attention of major communication networks. I am not writing this to brag, I am writing to let you know that I know what I am writing about and my credibility has been gained over a decade of coherence in my analysis. This is not a miffed letter like the one that could have been fired by a miffed constituent of yours.
Right now in Venezuela I am facing a deep personal crisis because my partner of 15 years has an incurable but somewhat treatable form of cancer. I cannot describe the excruciating toil that it is in Caracas to find adequate treatment, adequate help, to bring my debilitated partner to his appointments, to be afraid that any new hospitalization may bring us to bankruptcy, etc. All of this because the public health system of "socialist" Venezuela has failed and we have been forced to take expensive and yet limited private heath coverage. And this at a time where the deep mismanagement and corruption of the country has left it without cash reserves to even import basic medical supplies (and food, and spare parts, etc.) Thus you will forgive my outrage when I learn that my government has spent 550,000 US dollars to lobby so that the corrupt officials of Venezuela could count on you to stop sanctions so that they can go to Disney World with their families this summer, or maybe for the more daring ones, Bourbon Street.
Senator, I am finishing this letter by letting you know that I am gay, Liberal, and I have even a French origin like you. In the my many years I lived in the US I did develop a strong liking to the country and its people. You do not seem to be like the people I knew and which I was intellectually close to. I lived in North Carolina when Jesse Helms was a Senator and somehow I suspect that for all the justified dislike I had for Helms, he would have never supported Venezuela today they way you are doing. Please, prove me wrong. Otherwise I will have to root for Bill Cassidy of which I know little. That is, he may be the worse homophobe from the Tea Party for all that I know, but in politics it is sometimes preferable to have an enemy you can predict than an unprincipled friend that can set you loose at any time.
It is up to you to correct your mistake. Just do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment