On Sunday, the ad above appeared in daily Ultimas Noticias, as part of a full page ad of PDVSA News.
This is a
complete translation of the ad: CITGO
ratified its announcement not to renew the contract with 7-eleven At the beginning
of the year, CITGO, a PDVSA affiliate decided not to renew its contract for
supplying gasoline to the retail chain 7-eleven, which ended at the end of
September. This decision was announced in July. The
contract with the referenced chain did not adapt itself to CITGO’s strategy of
placing liking the sale of gasoline with the production of its refineries,
after the sale of its stake in the Lyondell refinery located in Houston, United
States of America. CITGO,
located in Houston,
is a refining, transportation and marketing company of fuels. Lubricants,
petrochemical products, refined waxes, asphalt and other industrial derivatives.
(Under the
CITGO sign it says: “US Company 7-eleven denied participation in the boycott
against CITGO) Yes, it actually says that CITGO broke with 7-eleven, not the other way around.
Let’s look
at the facts: ---On July
11th. CITGO announced that
it would no longer provide gasoline to 1,800 gas stations, saying that it will
cease supplying stations in 10 states and stop supplying some stations in 4
additional states. The reason is simple: CITGO could no longer produce
sufficient gasoline to provide all 15,100 stations in its networks and was
cutting these for geographical reasons. Curiously, this press release has now
been removed form the CITGO “on
line pressroom” (I have captured the image just in case it is manipulated
again). ---Last
week, 7-eleven announced that it would drop the CITGO gasoline name at 2,100
stations and switch them to its own branded fuel. But the two networks do not
overlap: CITGO dropped in July the stations that were
geographically related to the Lyondell refinery, a total of 1,800 stations,
while 7-eleven is dropping 2,100. Moreover, the 1,800 dropped in July were NOT all part
of the 7-eleven network. Moreover, CITGO
was very clear in July that there would be no more cuts.
In fact, the name 7-eleven was never mentioned in July. 7-eleven was part until
last week 5,300 of the more than 13,000 CITGO gas stations. The additional 2,100 stations cut are the ones
whose contract expired last week, you can be sure that next year, when the contract
expires for the remaining 3,300 of the 7-eleven chain, they will also be
dropped. This contradicts the earlier statement by CITGO that it plan no more
cuts. ---On the
boycott, the 7-eleven press release was quite political but clearly did not
call for a boycott of CITGO, since it still has 3,300 stations under the CITGO
brand which is (was?) a very good brand. The boycott is being proposed at a grassroots
levell, it has its own blog, website and website and has a life of its own. And then there is the
proposal to remove the CITGO sign in Kenmore Square, Boston,
which was declared a landmark a few years ago. Clearly, 7-eleven could not join
these movements, but
it did say in its press release : “Certainly
Chavez's position and statements over the past year or so didn't tempt us to
stay with Citgo" Or: "Regardless
of politics, we sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory
comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's
president, What is
clear is that while gas is fungible, CITGO’s rash decisions may cost it its
whole network, where the CITGO brand is well established and it has a value
that may have been thrown overboard with these decisions.
Thus, the solution is
the ad above, try to hide the truth, the facts, distort reality and make
Venezuelans believe that this was the Government’s plan all along. That 7-eleven did not make this decision but CITGO, PDVSA or the autocrat himself did it. these are all lies, simply lies. In the end
it is Venezuela
and Venezuelans that lose with this, just so that the stupid revolution can have its way. But what is worse is that they try to cover up, like they do everyday, their infinite inefficiency and immense incapacity. Goebbels
would have been very proud of them. (Thanks XX for the CITGO inside info)
7:00:18 PM 
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