Venezuelan President Offers Cheap Gas for US Poor

VOA News
August 24, 2005

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has offered to provide cheap gasoline to low income Americans faced with rising gas prices.

Mr. Chavez made the offer Tuesday as he was departing Cuba following a meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

The Venezuelan leader said his country could supply cheap gasoline - with Washington's approval - directly to poor Americans if intermediaries who "speculated and exploited consumers" were cut out.

Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil producer and enjoys some of the world's lowest gas prices.

The Bush administration has called Mr. Chavez a destabilizing influence in Latin America.

Some information for this report provided by AFP and Reuters.