VHeadline editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes:

Unofficial sources quoted by the regional newspaper Correo del Coroni say that there is "a perverse political maneuver" demanding the removal of Sanz, who has endeavored to get a mine-operating contract with Canadian transnational Crystallex International on the road towards a re-launch of the gigantic Las Cristinas gold deposit, said one of

the richest mineral reserves in Latin America.

Mining sources claim that President Hugo Chavez was in position to define Crystallex' situation but that some Bolivar State politicians and business leaders had been concerned about their participation within the Canadian consortium, and that this had triggered a imminent confrontation.

If he does depart from the CVG and the Mibam Ministry, Sanz could take up a more prominent position in President Chavez' executive team. Meanwhile it is said that it would leave a vacuum in the CVG that could possibly be taken over by Major General (Army) Jose Gregorio Montilla Pantoja, who was until recently head of Army Operations Theater 5, which could negate the ambitions of some representatives of Bolivar State Governor Francisco Rangel Gomez who had originally intended to take the reins of the CVG.

Government sources who prefer to remain anonymous are quoted in Correo del Coroni as saying that a "blunder" made by Vice President Ramopn Carrizalez in appointing former military Herrera Jimenez to head CVG-Bauxilum could easily have been exploited by other factors of power within the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Roy S. Carson