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Basic Industries & Mining (MIBAM) Minister to stand down in early January?

VHeadline Venezuela News reports: Venezuela's diplomatic corps is rife with (unconfirmed) rumors this afternoon that Basic Industries & Mines (Mibam) Minister, Rodolfo Sanz -- who is also president of the giant Venezuelan Guayana Corporation (CVG) state-owned industry conglomerate -- is to step down immediately after the Three Kings holiday (January 6) at the conclusion of a major deal with Chinese investors.

Government officials are reluctant to confirm or deny the rumors, referring to a blanket ban on press comments imposed by Sanz himself following a number of media indiscretions by Mibam and CVG officials.

Senior foreign diplomats are speculating that Sanz may be offered an ambassadorial role in Teheran where he recently visited in the company of Jesse Chacon, who resigned as Venezuela's Minister of Science & Technology on Saturday after the arrest of his brother, Arne Chacon Escamillo, a former Naval officer who was president of Banco Real and BanInvest and one of three bank executives who were arrested on Friday in a government purge of Venezuela's banking sector. The Chacon brothers had helped Chavez stage a failed coup attempt in 1992 that led to their imprisonment but helped Chavez achieve national fame and allowed him to win the presidency seven years later.

Minister Sanz is largely credited with central government moves to regain sovereign control over Venezuela's mineral resources, including a massive revision of mining laws and state control of gold production.

It is understood that Sanz' role at Mibam is to be taken over by current Labor Minister Maria Teresa Iglesias who is described as a hardliner in the Chavez encampment.

VHeadline Venezuela News
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