CITGO owner aids Sandinistas in Nicaragua election

The owner of CITGO is mobilizing Chavez's oil diplomacy to aid the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in its bid to regain political control of Nicaragua.

FSLN presidential candidate Daniel Ortega, who headed the Sandinista junta when allied with the Soviet Union in the 1980s, stands to benefit from the Venezuelan government's generous terms for diesel fuel.

The FSLN "guaranteed the deal clinched in April . . . [with] the state-run company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)," Cuba's Prensa Latina propaganda agency reports.

PDVSA owns CITGO.

The first shipment of PDVSA diesel reportedly arrived in Nicaragua on October 8. Sixty percent of the shipment is to be paid in 90 days (after the election) at free market rates, "but the remaining 40 percent will have a 23-year credit with low interest rates," according to Prensa Latina.

Joining Ortega at the fuel arrival celebration was PDVSA-Caribe President Alejandro Granados "and other important Venezuelan officials," the report says.