MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Blockage harms Kirchner's thaw plan

Five trucks that were headed for one of the two paper pulp mills under construction in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos were blocked yesterday by Argentine protesters who oppose the plants for environmental reasons.

The trucks were coming from Chile, loaded with iron parts for the Botnia plant, and were stopped by protesters near the town of Colón in Entre Ríos province. The demonstrators said they would block the way for another six trucks expected in the next few hours.

The new roadblock incident collides with the national government's efforts to defuse the diplomatic row sparked by Uruguay's decision to authorize the construction of the paper pulp mills by the Finnish firm Botnia and the Spanish firm ENCE near the Argentine border. Environmentalists and residents of Entre Ríos are up in arms against the plants, which they say will pollute the river dividing the two countries.

President Néstor Kirchner last week sought to play down the spat over the plants, saying that it was restricted to "an environmental issue" that did not affect the broader bilateral relations between the two countries.

Kirchner will this week meet with Entre Ríos Governor Jorge Busti, reportedly to tell him that it will be up to national government diplomacy to handle the situation as from now.

In sync with the President, Busti said over the weekend that roadblocks on routes leading to Uruguay by anti-plant demonstrators had been "negative." Yesterday, Busti said that he will discuss "rational ways" out of the problem when he meets with Kirchner.

"We will look into rational ways to unlock the conflict, else we would be painting ourselves into a corner," said the governor in a radio interview.

Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the Entre Ríos environmentalists, Juan Veronesi, said that the President "is not backing us sufficiently." Veronesi is a member of the pro-environment assembly in Gualeguaychú, the cozy town across the river from the place where the plants are being built.

Lavagna: conflict was fuelled by ?electioneering'

Former economy minister Roberto Lavagna said yesterday that the conflict with Uruguay over the paper pulp mills in the town of Fray Bentos was fuelled by "electioneering" in the province of Entre Ríos.

"Strategic state affairs such as relations with Uruguay and environmental issues should not be mixed with electioneering as happened in Entre Ríos," said Lavagna in a written statement.

Lavagna, whom Kirchner replaced by Felisa Miceli on December 1, urged the administration to handle the situation "in a serious way." (BAH)