with my neighbor today. He's a senior SNC engineer with lots of South american experience.

He says that China is seriously throwing its weight around down there and muscling others out of the picture. They tie their purchasing of resources to getting what they want in other areas and they have been pushing established firms out of many projects even some that were already underway. Sounds like they play rougher than we thought.

Says China has 38 million engineers.

I find it ironic that the Chinese savior of KRY is part of a larger phenomenon that may end up seriously damaging our economies.

I guess we can indeed assume that the Chinese will get what they want here.

Let's hope that what they want is in our best interest and that the Chinese elephant doesn't decide to role over on us.