Hugo Chavez can’t even keep power on 24 hours a day in Venezuela, but he’ll continue his propaganda operation by continuing shipments of Citgo fuel to poor American families.

BOSTON (AP) — Citgo, the Venezuelan government’s U.S.-based oil subsidiary, is reversing course and will continue shipments of heating oil to poor families in the United States.

Joseph Kennedy, head of the Boston-based nonprofit which distributes the fuel, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez intervened directly.

Citgo Petroleum CEO Alejandro Granado made the announcement Wednesday in Boston, saying Citgo had found a way to continue paying for oil shipments.

How nice of him. Why, this doesn’t look like a ploy by an oppressive dictator to win over American popular opinion by buying them off at all, huh? I don’t believe for a second that Chavez wasn’t aware that Citgo was going to announce the suspension of shipments from the get-go. But he’s supposed to look like a hero for stepping in and stopping it from taking place.

If it’s all really about caring for people in tough conditions, why doesn’t Chavez work on the people without reliable energy in his own country? Oh, right. Because that wouldn’t help his outside propaganda operation very much. But this, a socialist regime appearing to be able to afford to help poor people in other nations, does.