MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A back-fence dispute crosses an international border

The irritating dispute between Uruguay and Argentina was also addressed by The New York Times.

For Argentines, few traditions are more treasured at this time of year than a relaxed beach vacation, preferably in neighboring Uruguay. But the residents of the border town of Gualeguaychú are risking their countrymen's wrath by blocking highways to Uruguay to protest the construction of a pair of paper mills there that they say will pollute the river that forms the frontier between the countries.

Just east of here, several dozen demonstrators, some playing cards, others sipping bitter mate tea from gourds or roasting sausages on grills, sat in the shade of a red cargo truck and a tractor that serve as a roadblock. "No to the paper mills, yes to life," proclaimed their bumper stickers and the banners they had hung from the truck.

"The Uruguayans have no right to poison a river that belongs to all of us on both sides," said José Pouler, the owner of a pizzeria here. "These projects are going to damage agriculture and kill off tourism, all for the benefit of a couple of foreign companies that don't care about the people of this region."

The paper mills (one owned by a Finnish-Swedish consortium, the other by a Spanish company) are being built on the riverbank in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos. They represent an investment of more than 1.9 billion US dollars, the largest in Uruguay's history, and are expected to produce more than 1.5 million tons of cellulose for export each year.

The road blockages here began just before the New Year, after the residents of this town of 80,000 expressed frustration that their complaints were being ignored in both capitals. They accuse Uruguay of violating a treaty that governs use of the river, and are irritated that their own president, Nestor Kirchner has not been more energetic in opposing the projects.

Initially, the protesters announced in advance where and when they would block highways and for how long, allowing vacationers to adjust their schedules. But the picketers have raised the ante, now acting without warning and not telling motorists how long the blockade will last.

The environmental group Greenpeace has also led protests aboard boats in the middle of the river. But spokesmen for the paper companies say that the factories will meet the demanding environmental standards of the European Union and will employ technology that reduces pollution to a minimum.

Some of the vacationers who have come long distances from the interior of Argentina, only to be turned back here or at two other border crossings north of here, have cursed the protesters and refused to take the pamphlets they are handing out. But the opponents of the paper mills show little sympathy for them.

"Our health and well-being are more important than their being able to spend their summer vacation on a beach in Uruguay," said Daniel Frutos, a physician here.

Luis Molivuevo, one of the boycott organizers, added, "We've asked other Argentines not to spend their summer in Uruguay, but if they don't want to help, then we have to make our boycott obligatory."

Commerce among the four countries that make up South America's Mercosur customs union is also suffering, and that has led Uruguayan authorities to charge that the promise of free movement in the group's founding charter is being violated. Trucks from Chile carrying mill equipment were forced to turn back, and on both sides of the border, drivers of other vehicles laden with cargoes of perishable food and machinery have been camped out, sometimes for days and with little money for food, waiting for the roadblock to be lifted.

Across the river, in sleepy Fray Bentos, sentiment is just as strong in favor of the projects. The town has been "economically dead" since a meat processing plant closed more than 20 years ago, said Dani Bazán, a commercial photographer there who welcomes the 2,000 new jobs and the revival of business activity the mills will bring.

"It's not that we like the idea of the mills so much as that we welcome the jobs, and well-paying ones, at that," said Sandra Caballero, a 35-year-old cook who is taking a course to become a welder in hopes of getting a job at the plant owned by the Finnish-Swedish consortium. "There will undoubtedly be some pollution, but we have faith that our government will be able to control emissions and punish the companies if they do something wrong."

For Uruguayans, the dispute has also become a matter of sovereignty and national pride. Their country was created 180 years ago as a buffer between Brazil and Argentina, and throughout their history they have often complained of being bullied and scorned by their much larger neighbors across the River Plate estuary, with whom they share a similar accent and culture.

Uruguay has recently expressed dissatisfaction with its secondary role in the Mercosur trade group and with the conduct of its neighbors. The left-leaning government of Tabaré Vázquez, which took office in March 2005, as a result has recently expressed interest in negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States; if reached, it would surely be a death blow to Mercosur.

Mr. Kirchner initially declared that stopping construction of the paper mills was "a national cause." But faced with the prospect of Uruguay's defection from Mercosur, he has toned down his language and sought to discourage the roadblocks, although the police have not intervened to halt them.

Though the two presidents have recently talked by phone about the standoff, they seem reluctant to make concessions that may offend their supporters. A Uruguayan congressman has suggested Vatican mediation, an idea that the papal nuncio quickly quashed. Argentina is talking about taking the case to the World Court in The Hague, where a decision would come only after the plants were operating.

In his most recent public declaration, Mr. Vázquez vowed that "construction of the plants will not be halted." As a way of criticizing the Argentines, he recalled the lyrics of an old tango, comparing their behavior to that of "the man who beats his wife because he fears she may cheat on him four or five years from now."

"That is exactly what is happening to us right now," he said. "They are inflicting real damage on us out of fear of some hypothetical damage we might cause them in the future."