INDIAN ISLAND – Representatives from the Venezuelan government visited Indian Island Thursday to meet with members of Maine’s tribes in hopes of developing a stronger relationship and discovering solutions for problems that afflict indigenous communities worldwide.

The Venezuelan officials, indigenous to their land, were able to hear firsthand the benefit that the Citgo Petroleum Corp. agreement has provided the area. The visitors were treated to a reception and luncheon at the Island’s community building.

The Penobscots have developed a relationship with the Venezuelan government. Four years ago they entered into an agreement to have Citgo, the national petroleum company of Venezuela, sell discounted oil and provide some free fuel to the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes in Maine. Representatives from the other Maine tribes also attended Thursday’s event.

“The program is more essential now than it’s ever been,” Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis said. “The benefits have been extraordinary. Last winter was very long and our budgets took a hit, as well.”

But with help from the oil program, the tribe’s general assistance expenditure has decreased 80 percent, Francis said. Just this year, the Penobscots received 150,000-plus gallons of free heating oil.

“It’s pretty significant,” Francis said.

Since its inception, the program has expanded to provide 100 million gallons a year of free heating oil to more than 200 U.S. tribes and Alaska natives, homeless shelters and low-income families, according to an April 4 article in Indian Country Today. Ninety percent of the fuel Citgo distributes under the agreement in the U.S. goes to low-income residents; the other 10 percent goes to American Indian tribes.

The Penobscots have a leading role in the relationship and serve as the lead signatory for all of the tribes in the U.S., although each tribe has its own agreement with Citgo.

Even though they had arrived only a few hours before, the representatives from Venezuela said they immediately noticed a change in climate, but similarities in the two cultures.

“This is the first step to getting to know other tribes and learning how they deal with [health and education issues],” Dr. Noly Fernandez, Wayuu tribal member and director of Venezuela’s Ministry of Indigenous Health, said through an interpreter. “We have many similar problems with health between our communities.”

“All of the help that we can give to any indigenous nation of the world is a very important sign of solidarity,” the First Governor of Venezuela from the Amazon region, Liborio Guarulla, said with the help of a translator. “It’s time that we come together to change for the better the effects of colonization in this world.”

When asked his response to the resolution being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives to deem Venezuela a terrorist nation, Guarulla said it was nothing more than propaganda. He added that the focus of their visit to Maine was to show other indigenous people the strides they have made toward having a voice in government.

In doing so, the Venezuelans also are seeking solutions to common health and education issues.

“We understand that alone there can be no resolution,” Fernandez said, noting that the people she represents are trying to discover how to harmonize traditional medicine with Western medicine for the benefit of their people.

“It’s through solidarity and the bringing together of communities that we can improve everyone’s life,” Fernandez said.

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