MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's dispute with Kirchners becomes regional

Fernandez: Uruguay's position is plain clear: "it is based in strictly abiding by the statutes of Unasur"

Uruguay is considering abandoning the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR in the event Argentina manages to modify the mechanism for the nomination to the chair of the organization, thus imposing its candidate former president Nestor Kirchner, which Uruguay rejects point blank.

This coming week Brazil will host the biannual Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) presidential summit in Salvador Bahía, but to the meeting have also been invited the rest of the leaders of Latinamerica to formalize UNASUR and to prepare next year's agenda for the Group of Rio. According to press reports in Montevideo, the Uruguayan strategy for the coming summit was discussed in last Monday's cabinet meeting with Foreign Affairs minister Gonzalo Fernandez explaining the country's position in the dispute with Argentina. Uruguay and Argentina have been at odds for more than two years over the construction of a Finnish pulp mill along the border and jointly managed River Uruguay. Argentina argues Uruguay never explicitly informed Buenos Aires about the project thus opening the way for pickets that have blocked at least one of three international bridges alleging the Botnia plant is highly contaminating for the regional environment. The case is currently before the International Court of The Hague, but pickets (originally promoted by the Kirchner couple administrations) continue and the pulp mill celebrated its first full year of successfully functioning. Uruguay's position all along has been there are no possible talks about the pulp mill with pickets interrupting traffic between the two neighbouring countries, and thus vetoed (to the fury of Argentina) the consensus naming of former President Kirchner to the chair of Unasur. Uruguay's position is plain clear: "it is based in strictly abiding by the statutes of Unasur, which specifically states that the permanent chairman must be nominated with the unanimous support of all 12 country members", Fernandez was quoted. Argentina recently hinted that given Uruguay's position it was sponsoring a change in the election mechanism, be it by consensus or a majority. Apparently Fernandez also told the cabinet that "possibly Paraguay, Peru and even Brazil" could have their doubts about the nomination of Mr. Kirchner. An estimated thirty Latinamerican and Caribbean leaders (including Cuba's Raul Castro) are expected in Brazil from late Monday for the two day meeting under the banner of regional integration.