{"id":125,"date":"2013-03-21T11:09:39","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T15:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?p=125"},"modified":"2025-04-07T13:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T17:31:09","slug":"half-staff-and-citgos-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Half-staff and Citgo\u2019s flag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some people in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/flags-banners\/houston-city-flag\">Houston<\/a> became upset when the headquarters of Citgo, located in the city, flew the U.S. flag at half-staff after the recent death of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. Citgo is a Venezuelan-owned business.<\/p>\n<p>The company also lowered the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/flags-banners\/texas-state-flags\">Texas state flag<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/flags-banners\/venezuela-flags\">Venezuelan banner<\/a>. A news article about the outrage engendered by the gesture stated that \u201cthe flag may only be lowered for the death of foreign dignitaries if indicated in Presidential instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, yes\u2026and no.<\/p>\n<p>Presidential Proclamation No. 3044,34, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/fly-flag-half-mast\">Display of Flag at Half-Staff<\/a> Upon Death of Certain Officials and Former Officials,\u201d declares that \u201cthe President shall order the flag flown at half-staff for stipulated periods upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a state, territory, or possession. After the death of other officials or foreign dignitaries, the flag may be flown at half-staff according to Presidential instructions or in accordance with recognized custom not inconsistent with law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But, as noted in the <a title=\"US Flag Code\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/flag-code\">U.S. Flag Code<\/a>, \u201cthe provisions\u2026on flying the flag at half-staff are, like all the Code\u2019s provisions, a guide only. They do not apply, as a matter of law, to the display of the flag at half-staff by private individuals and organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, people who fly flags in front of their homes and companies that have banners waving outside their headquarters can observe the code \u2013 or ignore it. In the legalistic language of the <a title=\"American Flag Code\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/flag-code\">Flag Code<\/a> itself, its rule \u201cdoes not proscribe conduct, but is merely declaratory and advisory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, the code certainly provides important guidelines for people who want to honor the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/american-flags\">American flag<\/a>, wherever it flies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some people in Houston became upset when the headquarters of Citgo, located in the city, flew the U.S. flag at half-staff after the recent death of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. Citgo is a Venezuelan-owned business. The company also lowered the Texas state flag and the Venezuelan banner. A news article about the outrage engendered&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/\">continue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,23,22,24,25],"class_list":["post-125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history-lessons","tag-american-flag","tag-citgo","tag-flag-code","tag-half-staff","tag-hugo-chavez"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Citgo&#039;s Flag Flies at Half Staff Following Death of Hugo Chavez<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about the controversy that this sparked, and find details about proper half-staff etiquette for private individuals and organizations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Citgo&#039;s Flag Flies at Half Staff Following Death of Hugo Chavez\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about the controversy that this sparked, and find details about proper half-staff etiquette for private individuals and organizations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-21T15:09:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-07T17:31:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Breig\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Breig\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/\",\"name\":\"Citgo's Flag Flies at Half Staff Following Death of Hugo Chavez\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-21T15:09:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-07T17:31:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a\"},\"description\":\"Learn about the controversy that this sparked, and find details about proper half-staff etiquette for private individuals and organizations.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/half-staff-and-citgos-flag\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Half-staff and Citgo\u2019s flag\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Gettysburg Flag Works Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gettysburgflag.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/048662cff3dee1c17360c4683b5fe03a\",\"name\":\"James Breig\",\"description\":\"James Breig is a veteran author who specializes in history. 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