Delahunt-Chávez accord to be announced today

WASHINGTON — While most of Congress was spending an August recess tending to local constituents, Representative William D. Delahunt was in Caracas, sitting down to a four-hour, one-on-one dinner conversation with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, one of the Bush administration’s most ardent critics.

That meeting — unusual for a sitting member of Congress and a head of state so critical of the White House — sparked negotiations that led to the official announcement scheduled for today: A US subsidiary of a Venezuelan-owned company will provide 12 million gallons of discounted home heating oil to Massachusetts consumers and organizations serving the poor.

Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat who is emerging as one of his party’s leading voices in Latin American affairs, said he was simply trying to smooth strained US-Venezuelan relations while helping low-income people in his home state.

Critics said Delahunt should not be working so closely with Chávez, an outspoken leftist.
boston.com

Government spokesmen have no comment. The other 9 oil companies fleecing the people have no comment.

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