Argentina further delays the dredging of a River Plate canal vital for Uruguay
Argentina formally requested Uruguay to jointly audit the River Plate Administrative Commission, CARP for alleged corruption claims involving the maintenance of the Martin Garcia canal, and which emerged in the Uruguayan press.
Foreign minister Hector Timerman asked his peer Luis Almagro to look into the corruption claims in a letter delivered on Monday to Uruguayan ambassador in Buenos Aires, Guillermo Pomi.
The controversial issue derives from the ongoing struggle between the governments of Cristina Fernandez and Jose Mujica for the dredging and maintenance of the Martin Garcia canal, which is crucial for Uruguay’s exports of grains, oilseeds, minerals, paper and pulp, but which port of Buenos Aires interests see as a threat to its River Plate predominance.
The treacherous River Plate has two main canals, Mitre leading directly to Buenos Aires, and the Martin Garcia which runs parallel to the Uruguayan coast and leads up the Uruguay River shared by the neighbouring countries.
Uruguay’s rich agriculture area to the southwest of the country depends heavily on the port of Nueva Palmira which has become a leading terminal, even more important than Montevideo for commodities exports. However if dredging is further delayed the operational costs of the terminal will keep increasing as vessels can’t be fully loaded.
The powerful lobby from Buenos Aires strongly objects the development of a competitor just a few tens of miles away. This strategy has led to all sorts of last-minute additional impediments for a dredging understanding which is exasperating for the Uruguayan side, but since the River Plate is a jointly managed water way, both sides must agree, and Uruguay does not have the funds or political resources to proceed unilaterally.
Given the very serious claims published in the Uruguayan media referred to alleged acts of corruption involving the maintenance of the Martin Garcia canal, the Argentine government requests “a joint special audit of CARP in the next 24 hours” said the letter made public by Minister Timerman.
Argentina is naming the Auditing Office for the task and expects Uruguay to do the same with a similar competent institution.
Timerman in the letter argues that keeping to the commitments on maintenance and dredging of the canal is the intention of Argentina but “it is a priority to clear up the alleged irregularities described by the Uruguayan media”.
According to the Uruguayan media the Dutch company in charge of the maintenance of the River Plate canals (Mitre and M Garcia) RioVia offered one million dollars kickback to each CARP delegation to annul a new tender and instead extend the current contract as allegedly happened, but at a price well above other options.
Several Uruguayan newspapers published that during dinner at Buenos Aires Jockey Club, the former Argentine president of CARP, and former Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto García Moritan offered the president of the Uruguayan delegation before CARP and former ambassador in Buenos Aires, Francisco Bustillo a million dollars if he “played in favour of RioVia”.
Apparently Garcia Moritán also invited to the dinner RioVia CEO in Buenos Aires, but Bustillo left the meeting and sent a written report on the whole incident to Minister Luis Almagro. Although the name of the CEO did not figure it is believed it was Sergio Cetera, who represents Boskalis, the Dutch family that owns RioVia.
The Uruguayan government from the beginning was intent to put out to tender the dredging of the canal with the intention of replacing the Dutch company RioVia which is known to have become particularly ‘Argentine’ in its methods. Besides RioVia which has been operating in the River Plate since 1991, saw its contract expire in January.
RioVia’s price was 19 million dollars while a second Dutch company, Van Oord offered to make the same job for 9 million dollars. However the contract put out to tender and which had attracted four companies was finally suspended given the many objections from the Argentine delegation at CARP that the Uruguayan media insinuated had fallen prey to the RioVia temptation.
End of story the RioVia contract was transitorily extended, but instead of 19 million dollars, the Uruguayan side managed to bring it down to 15 million compared to the 12 million it was charging until last year.
This way RioVia finally imposed itself and will continue dredging for Argentina and Uruguay until the two countries can agree on the contract terms and conditions to put out to tender, and a winner is nominated, so as to dredge the Martin Garcia canal from 32 to 34 feet.
The Uruguayan side had to accept defeat reluctantly because maintenance of the canals is crucial both for Buenos Aires and Nueva Palmira. By the way the Mitre canal is kept dredged at 36 feet.
Last but not least the current president of the Argentine delegation before CARP, a career diplomat and close to Timerman, Hernan Orduna has been formally charged with fraud for allegedly mishandling funds for the organization of the XXth Ibero-American summit that took place in Mar del Plata, December 2010.
Suggested Stories
-
May 23rd 2013
Cristina Fernandez administration limits overseas dollar extractions to a minimum
-
May 24th 2013
As the US before IMF lines up behind Argentina in the litigation with hedge funds
-
May 24th 2013
Argentina raids factory of US investor head of a hedge fund litigating defaulted sovereign bonds
-
May 24th 2013
Former Ford executives charged in Argentina for human rights crimes
43 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
Is it saying that Argentina has been repeatedly delaying allowing the canal to be dredged and now Uruguay has uncovered cases of corruption in Argentina that has led to this. In response instead of Argentina speeding the dredging they are now using an investigation into there own corruption to delay the project even further?
I think you've hit the nail on the head there.
So the UK can't help Uruguay, if they tried they would have to enter Argentine territory and we know that is never going to be allowed by Argentina. The only way the UK could is by declaring war. Good luck with world support on that one.
Now you see how the expansionist era was so important for Argentina. From the Patagonian oil fields and ice fields, to the provinces of Misiones (with 80% of Iguazu falls taken from Brazil), to Formosa province from Paraguay, to having part of the strategic Puna ceded by Bolivia and Chile... To Martin Garcia island from Uruguay, which we know see why it was so relevant.
Argentina has near complete strategic control of the River Plate (something the UK always wanted to prevent since the time of the Cisplatine War, part of the reason Uruguay was created as a state). We control most of Iguazu falls, control what was half of Paraguay, control 85% of Patagonia which could have been Chilean... have a stake in the metal rich northwest through the Treaty of Atacama we gained territory without firing a shot after Chile, Bolivia and Peru fought it out.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama_border_dispute
We didn't just annex and take any lands, we took strategic lands on all quadrants, and went from being the size of France to the size of Western Europe. And resource and geographically strategic lands at that.
It was also agreed (by Uruguay), that the island would be a natural reserve. So dredging wouldn't exactly be in line with that treaty.
So Argentina violates treaties, it gets blasted.
Argentina respects treaties... it gets blasted!
At least the rest of the world is consistent (in their BS).
If only part of the Martin Garcia did not run across the border we would have a chance but while Timmidman is covering his corrupt countries arse there is no chance the channel will be deepened to 36 feet (Panamax+ requirement).
Scottie_Kirchnerist: WTF are you rabbiting on about you pratt - you have missed the point completely. Timmidman is NOT fighting corruption - he and his mates are part of it. It's been going on for years.
....and after all that usurpation what have you managed to do with all that natural wealth?
A country the size of Western Europe named after a precious metal it is abundant in and yet it has dropped from one of the wealthiest nations in the world to a middle ranking developing nation in the space of 100 years.
What went wrong?
Nothing went wrong, Argentina is only 200. Why did Britain take 700 years to go to the upper rankings of European countries?
Using British/English history, we are in the year 1100 or so. How powerful was England within Europe then?
May 15th, 2012 - 03:33 pm
ARGENTINES!!!!!
You really are asking for it, you scum.
Ummmmm.....let me think.....what topic could this argument possibly be used in relation to?
(hint 1850 & 1982)
And you guys use it all the time!! So what's the big deal? Give me a little credit and admit I never have argued that point with your Brits.
Can't say “oh that's Ian he's missing his canine”, or “that's Nigel: overgrown bottom front tooth”.
Also Argentina's big victory's over Chile came while the Chileans were occupying Lima and had already seized Boliva's coastline. The conflict had nothing to do with Argentina, they just saw they could grab territory when most Chilean troops were in the far north, not really something to be proud of.
But there's a good side! “Look, there's an argie forced to swallow all his teeth before chewing his way out of his ass. Whoops. Failed. Still stuck up his own ass. You can tell. Just sniff”.
Your Royal Navy will be what's dredged out if you enter argentine territory for no reason.
Btw - England was ruled by Henry II for much of the 1100's who ruled the Angevin Empire - about half of western Europe.
I think that is the most agreed time I have read for the start of a somewhat cohesive “English nation”, culturally and politically.
Oh and as for “Your Royal Navy will be what's dredged out if you enter argentine territory for no reason.”
1 - We will have a reason to enter such as dredging the canal
and
2 - what the hell you going to do about it TYPE 45 will knock out any attacking air planes on intercepts course before your even in missle range to shoot at our navy ships.
two nits,
fighting over the ice rink .
Australia is only 200 and it seems to be doing fine.
Full set of teeth?! You don't get out of Mendoza much do you. Head out in to some of the villages in your own north west and report back.
And the only country in Latin America to ever have been considered any sort of world power in prosperity terms.
Chile may have done well in the last 20 years, but it is nowhere to were Argentina was in the period 1880-1950. Neither is Brazil, certainly not Mexico.
So now you are going to tell us that in Chile everyone has their teeth. I do have TVN, you surely must know.
@36 Sorry, Australia can date itself back to 1788. But then, who cares about dates? But let's try some. The Argentine Declaration of Independence was issued by the Congress of Tucumán in 1816. Didn't argies celebrate their bicentennial in 2010? Six years early, wouldn't you say? “A new constitution was enacted in 1826, during the War with Brazil, and Bernardino Rivadavia was appointed the first President of Argentina. This constitution was soon rejected by the provinces, due to its centralist bias, and Rivadavia resigned shortly after.” So no real argieland until at least 1826. “the promulgation of the Constitution of Argentina of 1853.” So NO argieland until 1853 BUT “Buenos Aires seceded from the Confederation and became the State of Buenos Aires.” STILL no argieland. Finally “Buenos Aires rejoined the Confederation, and Bartolomé Mitre was elected the first president of the unified country in 1862.” So argieland misplaced its bicentennial by 52 years. And YOU want to be critical of Australia. At least, unlike argieland, Australia is respected around the world. Which century do you reckon argieland will achieve that?
Did Australia not recently celebrate their bicentenary?
Any way don’t split hairs. The point is, two new world countries, with loads of land, minerals and cows – one doing spectacularly well and the other...well not so well.
You mentioned the teeth not me. I was not going to make any such claim.
---
As a matter of curiosity, after the tax was imposed on exporting beef, did beef get less expensive in Argentina? I am just wondering if there was some sort of positive result from the measure.
May 16th, 2012 - 03:12 pm
No the price of meat has steadily risen without a break.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!