Alejandro Lazo

An authoritarian thug who runs the fourth largest exporter of oil to the United States is "Giving $1.5 million to a Maryland charity," the Washington Post reported today on page eight of its Business section.

Citgo, the Venezuelan-owned oil company, is making a $1.5 million donation to the Silver Spring nonprofit group CASA of Maryland to help fund educational, training and economic development programs for low-income and immigrant workers.

The contribution is the latest effort by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to reach out to the poor in the United States in what critics call an attempt to curry favor with low-income Americans and embarrass President Bush.

Of course CASA de Maryland, among other things, advocates for amnesty for illegal immigrants, yet nowhere in Alejandro Lazo's August 5 article did the Post staffer even mention the word "illegal" to modify the term immigrants.