pen- "Now what I am questioning here, is this the writer mixing up different parts of Chavez's speach/broadcast? Because the words are the same as what he uses in describing the 'Mafias', who are enslaving workers from other countries. Is this maybe Chavez is trying to make any Company with a concession look like they have been doing what in fact the illegals were doing, to justify taking over concession? Who are all these concession holders anyway? Are there many? Are there any that are actively working?"

pen, i'll try to keep my opinion short...the number of mining concessions is probably into the low 1000's..they range from individuals to multi-nationals......most of the larger companies are gone now (or completely dormant).....

the only legally "active" concessions i'm aware of now are small co-ops and individuals. i would add rusoro's isadora/la camorra but according to what makin posted it does'nt look like anything's been legally transferred....so i guess the only "large scale legally active concessions" are actually being run by the ven govt.....maybe hugo will nationalize himself......

the thing i find funny here is that this is a complete re-hash of hugo's first "nationalization" speech...during that one kry/grz and every miner in vens PPS crashed 80%+ only to double and quadruple within a matter of weeks .....this time nobody's blinking..... i think everyone has finally reached the conclusion that you can't trust (or count on) anything he says..so you might as well ignore him... the one thing that is sticking in my head is: what if hugo's plan is to kick out kry based on the fact that they allowed illegal mining on LC? i know it's crappy but it smells like something hugo might try and pull....worst case....we still go to arbitration...