Rick Perry took a potshot at Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez on Tuesday, telling an Iowan audience that the US should strive to one day achieve independence from his country’s abundant oil supply. But until that day comes, Perry has rolled out the welcome mat for the South American nation’s petroleum business as governor of Texas.
“What a great day it would be to say ‘No thank you Mr. Chavez, we don’t need your oil,'” Perry said on Tuesday, according to The Fix.
In 2004, Perry oversaw a $5 million grant to Citgo, the American subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, to help entice it to locate its headquarters in Houston. The money was part of Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund, a signature program of the governor’s designed to help attract businesses to the state. The fund has come under intense criticism over claims of crony capitalism and inflated job numbers, issues that have garnered more scrutiny since Perry’s presidential run began.
Perry’s gone after Venezuela on the trail before despite his efforts to woo their American oil subsidiary. In his energy speech last month, the governor said that his plan “will break the grip of dependence we have today on foreign oil from hostile nations like Venezuela and unstable nations in the Middle East to grow jobs and our economy at home.”
That line caught the attention of Politico’s Ben Smith, who noted the Venezuela connection at the time. Perry defended the $5 million grant in an interview with the Weekly Standard in 2009 when his national profile was on the rise, saying “Dictators come and dictators go” but “Citgo will be around long after Chavez is gone.”
