I would not put much faith in anything that Chavez or Sanz says. Chavez has been all over the planet (vacationing under the guise of negotiating trade agreements with every dungridden country on the globe). I know he was talking about shared investments with China, Cuba and a number of African nations. Now it's Iran's turn but mining for uranium with Iran might just cause an unwanted result in Venezuela?

Iran is helping Venezuela to detect uranium deposits and initial evaluations suggest reserves are significant, the South American government said Friday (Sep. 25) -- the same day world leaders criticized the Islamic republic of secretly building a uranium-enrichment plant that could be used to make an atomic bomb. Mining Minister Rodolfo Sanz said Iran has been assisting Venezuela with geophysical survey flights and geochemical analysis of the deposits, and that evaluations "indicate the existence of uranium in western parts of the country and in Santa Elena de Uairén," in southeastern Bolívar state. (Boston Globe Sep. 25, 2009)

http://www.wise-uranium.org/upsam.html

I would like to hear more about the citizenry of Venezuela becoming restless and tiring of the endless promises, increased inflation and shortages of basic products. They sure have a threshold tolerance level much higher than that of citizens of the west. I'm afraid Chavez is betting the western nations monetary system will collapse before his people riot or any other bad thing happens to his regieme, but it will be tough to do only on Chavez retoric. I do not think we will get involved (the U.S.) unless there is overwhelming evidence of a direct threat. The troop level decisions Obama is making for Afganistan will be a sign to Chavez of the level of resolve he might have to contend with.

Meanwhile the uncertianty of the world economy and the threat of an expanded war is driving the gold price toward 1200, and I have always said greed (and plunder) is a large denominator in Chavez strategy (and so is staying in control)- So IMO, there is a good chance this gets resolved in our favor as smoke and mirrors might not work much longer. Chavez could then leverage the gold in the ground and blindside his dimwitted "new freind" investors buddies around the globe, exchanging his promises of future gold shipments in reciept for goods and services right away, thus enabling him to make good on some of the promises made to his constituants.

Chavez! Make the deal with KRY and be a hero, you putz!