Remember the political liability issue that everyone was talking about about way back when? There was talk that Ortega was afraid to OK the projects due to her liability if something happened to the environment...jail time. Only a hypothesis but what if Ortega has now freed herself of that liability with this statement using a lower official and knowing that Chavez will now use his presidential decree power. She sits pretty under no liability and did her job and is overrode by the president. She still upholds her status of a staunch environmentalist.