there is no question in my mind that illegal mining has existed at LC. there have been too many reports over the years of illegal mining/deaths at the mine/etc... my guess (and hope) is that the gov/armed forces/rengal/hugo were behind it and that kry had no option but to turn a blind eye to it and let it continue due to the corruption factor in venezuela.

eventually i would think that kry execs are going to be called as witnesses and i would think this would scare the ven officials involved in the illegal mining. large scale corruption by dictatorial governments is'nt going over real well these days.