MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pulp mills controversy: beauty queen marches in Buenos Aires

The Argentine beauty queen who last week disrupted a world leaders' summit in Vienna with a bikini-clad protest against pulp processing plants received an enthusiastic welcome in Buenos Aires as she joined new demonstrations Wednesday.

Last Friday Evangelina Carrozzo emerged from a crowd of photographers as Latin American and European leaders gathered for a photograph and took off her raincoat to reveal a bikini, knee-high boots and a sign against pulp plants in Uruguay.

The "bikini" coup, organized and sponsored by the environmentalist group Greenpeace, not only surprised leaders but was an instant headline in the world media.

Now fully clothed and in Buenos Aires Ms Carrozzo joined 300 demonstrators protesting outside the embassies of Uruguay and Finland, home to an investment consortium building one of the two Uruguayan pulp plants.

Carrozzo is the 2006 carnival queen of Gualeguaychu, the Argentine city leading the protests against the pulp mills under construction on the other coast of the river that acts as a natural border between the neighbouring countries. Following the Vienna incident she's considered a hero in her hometown and has been praised by the Argentine press for her boldness.

A bit surprised by her popularity she said "I didn't think there were going to be so many people and that they were going to mob me so much; but I'm happy to have come to Buenos Aires to be part of this protest."

Gualeguaychú protestors and environmentalists claim the two pulp plants being built just across the Uruguay River will pollute Argentine farmlands and damage tourism along the river. Uruguay however insists the project is environmentally sound following European Union standards and has vowed to go ahead.

The 300 strong group with Ms Carrozzo displaying her dancing skills also protested before the Swedish Embassy since a Swedish company Stora Enso has began talks for the construction of a third pulp plant in the Uruguayan central district of Durazno.

Protestors are also trying to dissuade the World Bank and private (French and Swedish) banks from granting loans to the corporations building the plants.