I am assuming that the powers that be in Ecuador will want to bring this project to fruition and recognize that they do not have the capability to bring this project to fruition without ARU or a major acquiring ARU with terms that must be reasonable enough to support most likely the latter option and that the anti-mining factions will concede with respect to ARU/FDN moving forward.

I wish it were that simple. My reading of the situation is that the Greens will not concede to mining anywhere in Ecuador. Their intent is to stop it completely and they have a long-term strategy. Same goes for the oil industry.

People should go back and read my post "A New Front Opens." The article outlines an initiative to close the entire Zamora-Chinchipe area to any sort of development - to make the whole area a National Forest Reserve. The fact is that it was a National Forest Reserve until recently. Changes were made to the law allowing some development, but this is being contested and the legalities of it are anything but clear.

My take is that if they can't shut us down on the mining mandate, they will use a different tactic . May 22 is International Biodiversity Day. I expect to see some kind of action on or around that day.

At some point the Ecuadorean People will wake up to the fact that what they thought was a Citizen's Revolution has been hijacked by a well organized international movement whose broad goal is to use Ecuador as a proving ground for their vision of sustainable development, which of course is competely unworkable as anyone with any common sense can see. Common sense is not their strong point however - this is an Ideology every bit a virulent as the socialism that preceeded it, and of which many supporters are refugees. Reason and compromise are not in their lexicon.

Frankly, the whole operation is an insult to the dignity, intelligence and sovereignty of the People of Ecuador. It is as much as saying you poor little people can't manage your own affairs and need us enlightened visionaries to show you the way. It's an old refrain that is starting to ring hollow for a lot of people. Lip service is paid to self-determination, while at the same time people are being indoctrinated to a view point that will ultimately condemn them to the same life of poverty they suffered under former regimes.

ebear