It is very hard to interpret what is going on, since there is a range of possiblilties that exist. The stock marker as it usually does fears the worst case, and hence with this uncertainly the SP has been significantly lowered.

Honestly, at this point local support for the Las Cristinas mining project may not carry much weight. Since, this decision has reach much higher levels of government. An important point I think is being missed is that no important Venezuela offical has really come forward yet. We keep on getting quotes from news atricles of a jailed politician. If everthing was status quo with this decision I would expect differerent branches of government to come out saying what is to happen next. A well plan decision would take into account all possiblilities, such as planned security, adequate information dissemination, and there certainly would not be any disruptions to planned meetings. Sanz, let me know if I am wrong, has not said anything. He has even not shown up at meeting that were planned to discuss mining. This does not sound to me that the denial of KRY permit was a well planned event at all.

So if we are confused, I would surely bet that there are a number of Venezuelain officals who are confused as well. I would imagine the government will address this issue very shortly, since confusion only heightens the emotions of all involved.

Overall, the release of the permit denials was not planned by the government indicating a number of Key government officals did not have warning or knowledge of what was happening. I would also highly doubt that this came from HUGO himself, otherwise, Sanz would of known. So to me this looks like the Mimbam released information without prior consent of any other government agency. Currently, this area of Venezuela is in damage control and hence the reason for the reactive deployment of the National gaurd.

Finally, The government of Venezuela will need to come out with clarifiy statements, and soon. JMHO.