MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gualeguaychu to block roads this weekend

Argentina and Uruguay have been squabbling for over a year over the construction of the mills in the Uruguayan town of Fray Bentos, on the banks of the River Uruguay that divides the two countries.

Argentina argues the mills will harm the environment. Uruguay counters that their impact would be manageable.

The decision follows the publication in a World Bank website over the weekend of a report that indicated the pulp mills would not harm the environment. The spokeswoman for the WB's International Finance Corporation (IFC), Karina Manasseh, said that the report was posted accidentally and that the report was only preliminary.

Last March, the government of President Néstor Kirchner lodged a complaint before the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague. The court turned down Argentina's request to order the construction of the mills to be stopped but a final ruling is not expected until possibly the middle of next year.

Environmentalists from Gualeguaychu, the Argentine town closest to the mills, yesterday launched a national awareness campaign calling on Argentines not to spend their summer vacations in Uruguay. The city of Punta del Este and Uruguay's northern beaches are popular holiday destinations for upper-middle-class and upper-class Argentines.

The Entre Rios environmentalists said yesterday that those spending their holidays in Uruguay would be indirectly financing the construction of the mills.

"We the people of Gualeguaychu call on Argentines to show their solidarity and spend their holidays in Argentina and not in Uruguay until they stop the construction of the plants," said a delegation of the Gualeguaychu environmental assembly during a press conference in downtown Buenos Aires.

The bilateral diplomatic tension over the mills peaked last summer, when the Entre Rios environmentalists blocked the roads. One of the roadblocks outside Gualeguaychu lasted for more than a month and a half.

"The three roads (leading to Uruguay) are in Entre Rios and we will continue to use them to protest against the construction of the mills," said the environmentalists. They added the roadblocks could start as early as the Columbus Day long weekend, October 14-16, when many Argentines are expected to cross the river to visit Uruguay.

The governor of Entre Rios, Jorge Busti, reacted to the environmentalists' warning, saying that it would be "a big mistake" to resume roadblocks. Foreign Ministry sources also said they were "worried" about the prospect.

"There is still a long way to go in the international courts and most of the people of Entre Ríos know it would be a big mistake to block the roads again," said Busti.

Two firms, Finland's Botnia and Spain's ENCE, had planned an initial investment of some 1.8 billion dollars to build the mills. The construction of Botnia's plant is already advanced but ENCE said it would relocate as a result of the bilateral conflict, although it has since failed to further elaborate on its plans. Buenos Aires Herald