MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

”Do not vacation in Uruguay'

Environmentalists in Gualeguaychú could stage campaigns aimed at changing the minds of fellow Argentines who plan to spend their summer holidays in Uruguay, a leader of the community group said yesterday.

The idea for the potential campaign was brought up on Monday night when the environmental assembly of the town in Entre Ríos gathered to discuss future policies in their struggle against the installation of two paper pulp mills in Uruguay.

"Last night some type of campaign was suggested aimed at stopping Argentines from going to Uruguay in the summertime. But the idea is still fresh and we don't know how to implement it yet," Osvaldo Moussou, coordinator of the interest group, told reporters yesterday.

Moussou said the Gualeguaychú assembly made no decision regarding the anti-summer holiday campaign but did vote to stage 10-day protests outside the Finnish and Spanish embassies in Buenos Aires.

Moussou also announced that environmental assemblies from other Entre Ríos towns are scheduled to meet in Gualeguaychú on Saturday to continue "discussing issues regarding the mills." Uruguayan environmentalists are also expected to take part of the gathering, called the River Uruguay Assembly Forum.

Uruguayan support to the two pulp plants being built on the River Uruguay in the Uruguayan district of Río Negro is high, especially among politicians and media but a number of environmental groups back the Argentine claim that the plants will pollute the river.

Spanish firm ENCE plans to invest 600 million dollars in its plant while its Finnish peer Botnia intends to spend 1.2 billion, making the combined investment the biggest private industrial investment in Uruguayan history. The two plants will be seven kilometres away from each other in the port of M'Bopicuá, outside the town of Fray Bentos.

Argentine tourism to Uruguay in the summer is strong and is a core element in Uruguayan tourism. Last year the flow of Argentine tourists was curtailed by the weeks-long blockades of two bridges linking both countries by environmentalists from Gualeguaychú and Colón, also in Entre Ríos. The only border pass left open was the road of the Salto Grande dam in the northern end of the province.

Uruguay claims to have suffered severe economic losses because of the blockades and filed a complaint against Argentina with a Mercosur court. The Argentine government replied last week, saying a pass was left open and said it did not crack down on the protests because it gave priority to people's right to protest over the right to circulate freely.

The Uruguayan claim was filed at the Mercosur court shortly after Argentina did likewise at the International Court of Justice at The Hague in May. The International Court in July ruled against the Argentine request to suspend the construction of the mills until environmental studies were held had but the court must still rule whether Uruguay has breached the 1975 binational treaty that regulates on the river. Buenos Aires Herald