An Argentine Supreme Court Judge has said that the pickets blocking an international bridge linking neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay to protest the construction of a pulp mill on the Uruguayan side are “illicit but not illegal”.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her Uruguayan counterpart José “Pepe” Mujica said on Wednesday they will be working to “re-channel” bilateral relations and will strictly abide the ruling of the Botnia paper mill case.
Angry protestors from Argentina marched Sunday on to the bridge linking with Uruguay to express their disenchantment with the recent international court judgement on the pulp mill dispute, which confirmed the mill does not pollute and there’s no sufficient evidence for re-location or damages’ compensation as demanded by Argentine environmentalists.
Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana called on Gualeguaychú activists that keep international San Martín bridge blocked for more than three years to “reconsider their ways of action, mostly after the International Court of Justice ruling”.
Uruguayan President Jose Mujica and his Argentine peer Cristina Fernández de Kirchner are to meet next Wednesday afternoon in Buenos Aires in what is to be the first encounter after The Hague International Court's ruling on Botnia paper mill was made public Tuesday.
“There are no miracles; we feel cool about the decision”, said Uruguayan president Jose Mujica following the International Court of Justice ruling which means there will be no relocation of the Orion pulp mill which besides does not contaminate, as was claimed by Argentina when it presented its case back in 2006.
In its judgement on ”Pulp mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina vs. Uruguay)”, the International Court of Justice, (UN principal judicial organ) declared that Uruguay has not breached its substantive obligations for the protection of the environment provided by the Statute of the River Uruguay by authorizing the construction and commissioning of the Orion (Botnia) pulp mill.