Hmmm,

He chased all the educated people out of Vz and had left to Cuba for surgery. Do they have any qualified Doctors left in Vz? I would think the irony of the situation is he may of had and ex Vz Doctor do the procedure.

http://agoracom.com/ir/Crystallex/forums/discussion/topics/new

I hope Fung is sick of all the games that Vz has been using on him, and finally files.

Norad tracking of Santa Claus last night showed that he went to places like Tehran, Iran, North Korea, and Bagdad, Iraq.However, he did not visit Caracas, Venezuela. Santa must of thought it was too dangerous for his reindeer and himself to visit Venezuela. Bummer!! Hugo Chavez no present from Santa this year.

A number of governments must see Chavez as an enigma, since his actions seem counterintuitive at times. For instance, Chavez hates the U.S as revealed by the American airlines incident where a phrase "the local Chavez time is.... " gets taken all the way to the top as being interpreted as the loco Chavez time. In addition, the U.S embassy is vacant. We also know that Chavez has repeatedly used Propandga in his own country stating that Venezuela problems were caused by the Capitalist pigs. Given this current situation one would wonder why Chavez would want any dealing with the U.S at all. Why not stop the oil exports to the U.S.! Chavez needs Money, and lots of it to fund the Revolution.

Current situation is that Chavez has seized power from the legislature for 18 months to rule with his power of decree. Interestingly enough, the Venezuelan elections will cocur in about 18months. In addition, Chavez is taking control of radio/t.v/internet communications. Couple this with the ilegal voting suspicion from the previous elections, and it makes things very difficult for the opposition. Overall, this indicates that Chavez is aware he is losing popularity and he is worried about the upcoming election.

So what Chavez needs is money and popularityto to say in power. The money is becoming increasing difficult for Chavez to obtain with both China and Russia more selective with their investments. In additon, the 8 billion dollar bond ruling may also indicate the start of other rulings that may go against Venezuela. All this is different from the last time Chavez ran for presidency where he had tons of money, and his popularity was around 70%. At that time Chavez did not need to put a gold mine in production since he hated the foreign capitalist and he did not need the money or popularity. However, this time things are very different. He needs money and his ability to do this is quickly drying up, plus any increase in popular support is desparately needed. Eventhough, people may think that GRZ and KRY mines are a pimple in the Venezuelan economy they do represent a chance to gain popularity and revenue. As proof to this GRZ after filling for arbitration is now in talks with Venezuela. Basically, this election has brought pressure to develope both these mines to help increase Chavez popularity, and revenue. This elections things are changing.

From the guardian.uk.

WikiLeaks cables: Oil giants squeeze Chavez as Venezuela struggles.

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  American diplomats say president is now desperate to attract foreign partners after nationalization frightened many away

  
  

Rory Carroll: Venezuela's tottering economy is forcing Hugo Chavez to make deals with foreign corporations to save his socialist revolution from going broke.

The Venezuelan President has courted European, American and Asian companies in behind-the-scenes negotiations that highlight a severe financial crunch in his government.

Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA, is the engine of the economy but buckled when given an ultimatum by its Italian counterpart and has scrambled to attract foreign partners, according to confidential US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks.

The memos depict an unfolding economic fiasco and suggest some of Chavez' key allies -- Argentina, Brazil and Cuba -- are gravely concerned at Venezuela's direction. "President Chavez, for his part, is acutely aware of the impact the country's general economic trajectory has had on his popularity," says one cable.

With a recession, underfunded infrastructure and 30% inflation, Venezuela's economic woes are no secret. But the government has insisted PDVSA, the country's golden goose, is thriving and capable of funding Chavez' vision of "21st century socialism."

Chavez took over the company and declared it a revolutionary instrument after defeating a management-led strike in 2003. He nationalized and expropriated swaths of the oil industry and said PDVSA would fill the slack left by departing foreign companies, declaring a triumph for sovereignty and socialism.

Analysts have suspected all is not well, citing corruption, broken rigs and unpaid suppliers, but the foreign oil companies still in Venezuela stay largely silent lest they anger the government and find themselves locked out of the western hemisphere's biggest energy reserves.

However, in separate private conversations with the ambassador, Patrick Duddy, industry figures detailed the parlous state of the industry. A senior manager from Chevron estimated the state oil company's output at 2.1 million to 2.3 million barrels per day, well below official declarations of 3.3 million.

Chevron was funnelling profits to the US and no longer investing in Venezuela, the manager said. An executive at oil exploration company Baker Hughes Inc said the firm had a similar strategy and "received a congratulatory message from BHI corporate headquarters for not growing the business (and increasing its risk exposure)."

A director of Mitsubishi in Venezuela was quoted as saying Chavez' executives were struggling to attract investment. "[The businessman] stated that privately, senior PDVSA leadership is extremely upset with the failure of international companies to register bids. He added that Mitsubishi sent a letter to PDVSA explaining why the conditions offered by Venezuela were insufficient and what would need to be changed to make a bid commercially viable."

Italy's ambassador to Caracas, Luigi Maccotta, told his US counterpart that Italian oil company ENI squeezed PDVSA over an Orinoco belt deal in January this year knowing it had no one else to turn to.

The Italians delayed the signing by two days to reinforce the Venezuelan government's "need for ENI." Paolo Scaroni, the company's CEO, then faced down Venezuela's oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, over changes to terms and conditions.

"Thirty minutes before the ceremony was supposed to begin Scaroni told Ramirez: 'Take it or leave it, I can get on my plane and move on.' Ramirez apparently used that half an hour to convince President Chavez to accept all of ENI's proposed changes or risk losing the deal," according to the US cable. The Italians said they would not pay PDVSA a standard signing bonus because the company already owed them $1bn.

Venezuela's oil minister, who is the head of PDVSA, travelled to Moscow and Beijing hoping for solidarity deals with allies, only to find the Russians and Chinese as profit-minded as western companies.

Venezuela's oil travails, combined with rolling power blackouts, decaying infrastructure and expropriations, have worried its other friends. Jorge Taiana, Argentina's foreign minister, told a US envoy that Cristina Kirchner's government did not agree with Chavez' assault on the private sector. "Taiana said [former President] Peron had already gone through a nationalization phase in the 1940s and the country had learned its lesson."

In a separate cable Marco Aurelio Garcia, a foreign policy adviser to the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was quoted telling the US ambassador that Venezuela had "deep domestic economic problems, particularly with regard to energy supply."

The US ambassador to Havana reported that the Castro government, which depends heavily on Venezuelan financial support, was fretting about its benefactor's economic health. "The view from the French is that Venezuela 'es en flames' and a source of serious concern for Cuba."

Chavez has brushed off claims of meltdown as capitalist propaganda, saying Venezuela's economy will emerge stronger than ever from current difficulties. The government is studying a draft law to facilitate further oil industry nationalizations to deepen the revolution.