Well, for one thing Hugo seems to hate gringos and capitalists. That means he hates us.

Also he has repeatedly said that he wants the Russians involved. Maybe Fung should be cozying up to Aggie instead of CRRC.

Those statements are without a doubt true in my mind.

The problem is that Chavez wants the gold out of the ground "for free". My guess is that the fix is in between Rusoro and Venezuela (case in point: Gold Reserve). Rusoro has promised Chavez a much bigger share of the profits if they can get their hooks in Las Cristinas....probably with handsome bribes thrown in for good measure. It is difficult to deny the larger picture that we have been looking at for years. Endless examples of public statements made by Chavez and Rusoro "spokesmen". Perhaps Russian politicos are involved...perhaps not. If China was not leery of getting involved in this passion play, they would have put their money where their mouth is rather than coughed up a measly 2.5 million dollar LOAN for one of the largest gold mines on the planet.. China wants the oil....and they certainly wouldn't mind getting a better deal on Las Cristinas (as if 2\3 of the pie wasn't enough) if the opportunity presented itself (who wouldn't?).

I've asked the question before and received no answer. HOW DO WE FUND ARBITRATION IF EVERYTHING GOES BAD AND CHINA IS OUT OF THE PICTURE IN LIGHT OF THE DILUTIVE 'HAIL MARY' (READ NO BETTER AVAILABLE FINANCING ALTERNATIVE) LAST JUNE? Maybe a Goldcorp is waiting in the wings? We had better hope so.