Partisan Oil

Leftists cut better deals than their right-wing counterparts, providing that they partner with Venezuela´s President Hugo Chavez.

Salvadorian party Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN)announced a deal with the Venezuelan government to buy refined fuel at preferential terms.

Under the agreement, cities managed by FMLN Majors will receive up to 100 thousand barrels of refined fuel at a discounted price of US$6 m, to be paid under favorable conditions: a first installment for 60% of the bill within 90 days from delivery, and a second in species (“agricultural products and other locally made goods”, if we are to believe the Mayor of Soyapango as quoted by Al Jazeera).

Salvador’s President, Antonio Saca, reacted to the news with skepticism, saying that the FMLN doesn’t count with the infrastructure to distribute the fuel.

This is the latest of a series of astute deals masterminded by Hugo Chavez, using oil as a political and public relations weapon.

The FMLN is a former guerrilla movement that became a political party after a peace treaty signed in the early nineties.