America's left wing, anti—corporate, socialist, eco—activists have a terrible dilemma today. Castro—wannabe Hugo Chavez has nationalized Venezuela's oil industry, and his American PR representativces spin fuzzy warm tales of the formerly oppressed masses now enjoying socialist nirvana. One of the messages they tell American lefties is to support Citgo, the American refining company controlled by the Venezuelan state oil company.

The only problem is that the state oil company doesn't bother with state—of—the—art tankers when shipping oil to the Citgo refinery on the Delaware River. An up to date tanker would not have had the ugly oil spill, killing birds and Other Living Things which just took place.

So, for the trendy—lefties the question is: does socialism win (buy Citgo products) or does ecology win (boycott Citgo)?

A.M. Mora y Leon   11 30 04