His "success" (if you can call it that) in the eyes of his poor voting constituency all came from taking the wealth created by others. He has always taken THINGS that have value...things that have already been financed, constructed and are operational. I believe that he is stupid\greedy\power hungry enough to believe that he can actually TAKE Las Cristinas (i.e. remove all the profit from the contract) AND get it BUILT at the same time. No doubt Vz is headed for a coup or Marshall law sooner rather than later. I really hope we get a deal before the 28th. The more I think about it the more I think Hugo may well let the deadline pass without granting the permit (even with his sleazy new "sell 70% of the gold to the bank" law). Why? Because he has a basic and increasingly flagrant disregard for the rule of law. The value of Las Cristinas to KRY lies in the value of the legal contract we have in the MOA and the terms of international arbitration. In Hugo's warped world he probably thinks that since nothing has actually been "built" he owes zero if he craps on the contract since it is just a piece of paper and "the people own the gold". If we don't get any deal before the 28th I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see the permit either. We'll see what the end game is soon enough. My biggest fear now is we die on the vine as the bondholders get their due and the wheels of international justice turn too slowly. Hugo then turns around and trades Las Cristinas gold for Russian weapons to keep the rabble rousers in line under Marshall Law. Unfortunately that scenario seems to fit nicely with how Hugo operates and views the world. At this point all we can do is trust that Fung will do the best for his shareholders...even if we end up with a few crumbs instead of nothing.