MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pulp mills conflict: pickets begin “indefinite” blockade

Argentine pickets resumed action Monday afternoon with the “indefinite” blockade of land access to Uruguay to protest the building of a pulp mill plant on the Uruguayan side of the river that divides the neighboring countries.

Argentine residents from Gualeguaychu and environmentalists decided Sunday evening to cut access to an international bridge linking with Fray Bentos in Uruguay, precisely next to where the Finnish pulp mill Botnia-Orion is under construction.

Gualeguaychu residents are against the building of the pulp mill arguing it will contaminate air and water plus condition development of the local tourism industry.

The pickets come a day before the International Financial Corporation from the World Bank will decide on a 170 million US dollars loan with credit guarantees involving another 350 million US dollars for the Botnia-Orion project.

"We want to show the World Bank that we are continuing the protests and that we're not only a hundred persons who are marching against Botnia, as the technocrats are saying", indicated Gustavo Rivollier Gualeguaychu assembly secretary.

Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Relations Environmental Affairs director Raul Estrada Oyuela admitted last week that the World Bank is ready to approve the loan for Botnia-Orion, but this will not stop Argentina from its rejection to the pulp mills projects in the river Uruguay which is shared and managed by both countries.

The protestors' assembly also decided to cancel interview requests with the River Uruguay Joint Management Committee and with Argentina's cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez.

Bilateral relations between Argentina and Uruguay have become increasingly strained with crossed demands before regional and international forums, plus the "facilitating" offices of the Spanish Crown to try and find a way out to the conflict.

Argentina appealed to the International Court of The Hague arguing Uruguay has ignored the 1975 joint management agreement of the river Uruguay and Uruguay has repeatedly denounced Argentina before the Mercosur Arbitration tribunal for impeding the free movement of people and goods across both countries.

Definitive rulings are pending although on both cases there have been calls on both sides for a lessening of tensions between two countries with a long history of friendly neighborly relations.

Argentina has openly said it will only use persuasion, and not force, to end pickets.

Uruguay considers pickets have caused extensive harm and losses to trade and the country's tourism industry when thousands of Argentines flock across to Uruguayan beaches.

The King of Spain was asked to help bring both sides together and "facilitate" dialogue but Uruguay's stance has been that no dialogue is possible as long as pickets persist and bridged are blocked.