MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Leaving Mercosur is the best alternative”

Uruguayan former president Jorge Batlle underlined that Uruguay “ceased to be an Argentine province long time ago” and said “leaving Mercosur is the best alternative”.

"There's something simple and straight: we ceased to be an Argentine province many, many years ago", said Mr. Batlle in a long Sunday interview with Buenos Aires daily "La Nacion" which addresses the year long dispute between Uruguay and Argentina over the construction of pulp mills in a shared border river and which Buenos Aires describes as an "environmental hazard".

Mr. Batlle insisted that "pulp mills of this kind are built all over the world, all the time, and will continue to do so", adding that he was convinced "they are also going to be built in Argentina".

"Probably not in the province of Entre Rios, as long as Governor Jorge Busti is around, but certainly in other provinces as demand keeps expanding".

Governor Busti has speared the campaign against the pulp mills in neighbouring Uruguay.

Entre Rios province neighbours and environmentalist groups have been protesting the construction of the pulp mills, from Finland and Spain, with pickets and blockading one, sometimes two, of the international bridges that link both countries.

Former president Batlle also criticized the current ruling coalition in Uruguay which although now in favour of the pulp mills projects, during the electoral campaign of 2004 "argued that is was a major mistake to have them, since they did not abide by environment standards".

"They didn't approve or support the pulp mills until President Tabare Vazquez, after having elected, said he had received a report from Norwegian experts showing that their position was wrong, that the plants would not contaminate as they originally believed", recalled Batlle.

The former president also argued that the "best alternative for Uruguay is to leave Mercosur", the South American trade bloc made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and eventually Venezuela.

"Uruguay requests a meeting of Mercosur to consider the infringement of Article 1 because of the permanent obstruction by Argentine pickets of the bridges which hampers trade, and what happens? Brazil and Venezuela meet with Argentina, which is one of the sides involved in the dispute, and decide that Uruguay's petition should not be considered, even when none of them has talked to us".

Mr. Batlle said that the regional bloc "no longer exists" and complained that "for a long time now Argentina and Brazil have been meeting, while Uruguay and Paraguay (junior Mercosur members) learn what has been decided by the press".

This month Entre Rios residents plus environmentalist groups both from Argentina and Uruguay contrary to the pulp mills, are celebrating the first anniversary of their first big march and "fraternal embrace" in one of the international bridges linking both countries.