VHeadline Venezuela reporters: Residents of the Maracay suburbs of Punta and Mata Redonda have denounced delays in payment of compensation after they were evicted from their homes on the shores of Lake Valencia south of the city under an emergency order secured in the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) against the Environment Ministry in August 2007.

The TSJ ruling ordered the families removed from the area and payment of substantial compensation by the Environment Ministry.

The Environment Ministry had begun litigation in 1999 on claims that the neighborhoods on a levee were causing pollution of the public reservoir used as a source for Maracay and Valencia cities, but the situation was further complicated by the suburbs being declared in emergency through no fault of their own by the Civil Protection Directorate which backed the residents claim for compensation if evicted.

Over one thousand villagers were, nevertheless, evicted and have been whistling for their money ever since ... they're now claiming, with reason, that Environment Minister Yubiri Ortega de Carrizales is deliberately stone-walling compensation payments because of a shortfall in her own Ministry's budget. Mata Redonda resident Maritza Gonzalez is convincted that Ortega de Carrizalez is digging her heels in and maliciously seeking to prolong the issue without regard for the pain and suffering of the villagers involved.

"The Environment Minister is setting herself up in complete defiance of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice," Gonzalez says. "There is no valid reason why we should not get the compensation now ... it has been almost a year since the court ordered her to make the payments!"

Meanwhile a re-housing plan to satisfy the requirements of the evicted villagers is also on hold since Ortega's husband, Vice-President Ramon Carrizalez has only recently taken over the Housing Ministry aznd the Civil Protection Directorate hasn;t received the funds to start the building project either.

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