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Peter Foster, National Post · Jan. 6, 2012 | Last Updated: Jan. 6, 2012 3:10 AM ET I was in a hotel room in Mexico City when I watched the Tokyo fight in which Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson 22 years ago. The result seemed so bizarre that I wondered if I might have stumbled into a parallel universe. That is not an unusual feeling in Latin America. The decision by an Ecuador appeals court to uphold a US$18-billion judgment against petroleum giant Chevron was perhaps less surprising, but hardly less surreal. For the second time in a week, a corrupt, leftist South American government appeared to have gained a legal "victory" over Big Oil. The Chevron decision followed hard on the announcement that the government of Venezuela had to pay only a fraction (under US$1-billion) of Exxon Mobil's demands (US$7-billion) related to expropriation of the company's assets. Any case involving Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez is likely to be weird and wonderful. However, the Chevron case in Ecuador - which is ruled by another socialist mobster, Rafael Correa - looks like a plot by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, not just because it features incriminating outtakes from documentaries, payoffs to Ecuadorian court officials and evidence that court decisions were ghostwritten by the plaintiffs, but because it has recently been linked with an even more shameless shakedown: the "Yasuni ITT Initiative." The Chevron case goes back almost 20 years, to accusations that Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, had failed to compensate adequately for its pollution of the Amazon while in partnership with state oil company PetroEcuador. This despite having paid for a cleanup that was certified by the Ecuadorian government. The case has - with the help of radical NGOs and U.S. lawyers, and the prospect of a bonanza payday - dragged on. A year ago, an Ecuadorian court ordered Chevron to pay US$8.6-billion, a sum that would double if it was not joined by an apology. No apology was forthcoming.

This comprehensive cash for gold guide explains the cash for gold business. It will detail how you can buy and sell gold and silver jewelry and more--for profit--on your own. It will thoroughly equip you for success and save you from costly mistakes. I won't argue that all of the alternatives are cash for gold scams. Instead, let's match them against this book. 1. "PARTNERS" Several companies promote "partner" systems. They promise to provide details about buying and selling gold; you would resell your items to them. Despite the clever spin, this arrangement would make you an agent--not a "partner". Will they teach you how to profit in cash for gold on your own? Of course not; that would senselessly create competition. Clearly, you would be tied to the company. Moreover, those companies pay less for scrap gold and silver--less than the companies you really need to know about. They actively recruits agents, provide limited information, and then pay substandard rates since their agents don't know it ought to be more.