At mid morning Thursday, fishing vessels in the port of Montevideo turned their sirens on for a few minutes to the memory of the lost mariners from longliner Argos Georgia, believed to be almost unsinkable given its sturdy complexion and modern technology, which sunk in the middle of a dramatic storm in the deep south Atlantic.
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou called for “sustaining the largest port investment in history” and pledged to “watch over the national interest” in the US$ 600 million lawsuit filed by Montecon before the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for alleged “anti-competitive practices” in the Port of Montevideo.
Chilean and Canadian partners of the Montecon consortium handling operations in the port of Montevideo have started an arbitration process for “damages and losses” worth up to US$ 600 million against the Uruguayan State before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) after preventing the company from transferring and storing containers in the facility's docks. Montecon is owned by the Neltume Ports consortium.
Uruguay's first railway shipment between the UPM 2 pulp mills and the port of Montevideo arrived at its destination Tuesday at 6 pm after traveling 264 kilometers, marking the beginning of a new era. “It is not the UPM train, it is the railroad that will run in Uruguay,” Transport Minister José Luis Falero stressed.
Uruguay's Deputy Tourism Minister Remo Monzeglio said this week that the South American country was going through the most active cruise season in the past 8 years, with 160 ships arrived so far (116 in Montevideo, 44 in Punta del Este and 44 others yet to reach its shores.
Argentina's Customs General Directorate created a department within its structure to monitor drug trafficking through the Uruguay River, it was announced Friday. The new task force will increase controls on regional transshipments where various containers featuring cocaine have been detected recently.
Private contractors believe they will complete the removal of sunken ships from the port of Montevideo in the first half of 2023 after having taken away so far two entire units and several parts of three others to facilitate navigation in the area, it was reported.
Red Ensign flagged trawler Argos Pereira which was heading for the Falkland Islands squid season, has been retained in the port of Montevideo after 28 of its 54 crew members tested positive to Covid-19, despite having complied with the expected protocols in the high seas before docking for bunkering in the Uruguayan capital.
One of the US Coast Guard newest vessels docked in Montevideo early Monday looking for supplies and fuel, but given the strict sanitary isolation measures no member of the crew will be disembarking or anybody visiting the vessel.
At least four Spanish fishing vessels, which normally operate in the South Atlantic, most of them with Falklands' licenses, left for Vigo and Marin in Galicia, avoiding transshipment operations in the port of Montevideo, Uruguay, according to the country's leading Maritime and ports information report.