I just read the vheadline article. It suprises me to some extent.

Last year it sounded like Yubiri Ortega (Minister of the Environment) was laying down the law re: development in sensitive rain forest locations. Now it looks like she has absolutely no teeth to affect any sort of environmental protection.

KRY agreed to do environmental cleanup as part of the mining development. I suspect this was due to the environmental pressure put on them from last year's denial. What good has com from this?

Someone shoud bring THIS up at the meeting tomorrow. How about a summary of what was agreed to to satisfy the Environment Ministry? Remember that letter that said, "Yeah... the changes are good"??

So, in essence, Yubiri Ortega *should* be our greatest ally since the continuing illegal mining is causing untold damage.

The State should want industrial development... to create taxible jobs, to create wealth, to extract accountabl gold in a safe mannor. Yet, none of this is happening.

Where does this go wrt to KRY? How can a company operate in this poisoned climate? The trend is looking like we won't be able to. Looking around it looks like Vz is a poisoned environment for ANY business.

The good news is maybe the turmoil in Iran can solicit change in Vz. Maybe the people will realize the crap that's going on. Maybe Chavez will wake up and realize that contunied business isolation is not working. I just hope that the corruption is addresses and that KRY's hands are clean when/if the investigations start.