What's going on at Pueblo Viejo, Dominican Republic?

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The "Pueblo Viejo" gold project is 60% owned by Barrick (ABX) and 40% by Goldcorp (GG). It's a ramping mine that is due to start extracting the contained 13m+ ounces of gold in 2011, but in the last 48 hours has been making headlines of a different type.

Check out The Mex Files on the story that has 1,000 workers claiming they were poisoned by a sulphide cloud and then later the mine bigwigs saying it was "only" a case of massed food poisoning shipped in by the caterers. All rather weird, as I know for a fact that sulphide fumes smell very different from a cheese sandwich....

News and advice from Haiti

A blog friend and fine fellow (he much prefers to keep his name off the public record, so not even initials this time) is currently helping out the relief effort on the border of Dom Rep and Haiti. He's just sent over some news and advice and allowed me to re-print it here (slightly edited to protect ID):

I am working with the Dominican Civil Defense helping to coordinate convoys participating in relief efforts from Jimani, the closest town to Port au Prince where trips are being staged twice daily (6:30AM, 2PM). If you know any individuals or organizations wanting to send aid, this is the best route to avoid the problems being caused by the US military at the Haitian airport.

If anyone plans on personally traveling to Haiti, it would be best to come with an organization that has a vehicle. We can send people by bus, but space is limited. It would be nice if people would really think about whether their skills are truly needed at the moment so they do not just become another mouth to feed.

Medics, translators (Haitian Creole, French), etc. are particularly needed.

Anyone coming to Haiti needs to bring a tent and whatever else they need for sleeping. I have been surprised by how many have shown up without such essentials. Keep in mind there was another earthquake Wednesday and aftershocks continue to rattle the area. Last night we felt brief shaking in Jimani, but it was not enough to knock anything over. Volunteers need to consider the psychological effects of these tremors before heading to the island.

The Civil Defense has long been underfunded, so even basic office supplies are lacking. If you want to donate toward relief efforts, Partners in Health and MPP (a member of Via Campesina) are the only organizations I would personally recommend, as they work at the grassroots level, with the big picture in mind. Un abrazo

Stay safe dude, and more power to you: You know who you are. Un abrazo pa' vos.

Half a kilo of C4 in Caracas, anyone?

Some French dude named Laurent Bocquet (above, from his 'feibu' page, as we say down here) got arrested trying to escape Caracas, Venezuela, and get to Isla Margarita on Friday. He was nabbed along with Omar Campusano, Diomedis Campusano and Edgar Florián Sánchez (all from The Dominican Republic). All four are supposedly members of the criminal gang known as "The Internationals" (oh how subtle). So when police checked out the arrested Frenchie's house in Caracas they found:

• half a kilo of C4 explosive
• flame throwers
• 5,000 (yeah, five thousand) shotgun cartridges
• bullet-proof vests
• military uniforms
• foreign licence plates
• 3 FAL weapons
• 2 machine guns
• 3 shotguns
• telescopic sights
• etc etc

Expect Venezuelan police to be called human rights offenders for daring to arrest foreign nationals like this on their soil. I mean, the impertinence...what's half a kilo of C4 between friends anyway?

UPDATE: Venezuela's Interior Minister has given a presser this afternoon to name the group as a "terrorist organization". Minister Tareck Al Aissami also said that Bocquet is known as an expert in military matters and a sharpshooter/sniper who saw action in Europe (the exact country wasn't mentioned). Here's a quote from Al Aissami:

"We can testify that the type of armaments used by these military terrorist organizations are for actions of destabilization. With this find we have no doubt in telling the country that we have dealt a severe blow to terrorism and to those groups that try to drag Venezuela into scenes of blood and confrontation."