As Spanish vessel with Falkland Islands fishing licence was harassed Saturday morning by the Argentine Coast Guard on leaving the port of Montevideo for the South Atlantic and had to reroute course in Uruguayan waters until reaching the high seas.
Uruguay considers that British control over the Falklands or Malvinas Islands constitutes a “colonial enclave”, which is “inadmissible”, and that is why Falklands’ flagged vessels are barred from entering Uruguayan ports, said on Friday Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro.
The British Embassy in Montevideo is discussing with Uruguayan authorities the implications of President Jose Mujica public statement that Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels “are banned from docking in the port of Montevideo”.
Uruguayan President José ‘Pepe’ Mujica denied on Thursday afternoon suffering pressure from the Argentine government to restrict British ships from docking at Montevideo’s ports.
Uruguay has banned the docking of Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessel in the port of Montevideo, following on complaints from Argentina that several fishing vessels with that flag, in recent months had been operating from Montevideo.
Uruguay expects a record cruise season beginning November with over 230 calls split between Montevideo and Punta del Este, 80 miles to the east on the Atlantic coast line, according to Deputy Tourism minister Lilian Kechichián.
Four crewmen seriously injured and a total loss was the result of a fire that broke out Thursday night in a Korean flagged fishing vessel docked in the port of Montevideo and was still burning Friday morning.
An eight metre long humpback whale with a big gash close to the mouth appeared dead in the port of Montevideo. According to local marine biologists the cetacean most probably collided with a vessel.
In a ranking of the busiest port terminals in Latin America & Caribbean, elaborated in a work of Infrastructure Services Unit of ECLAC, Port of Rio Grande (RS) lost position for the Port of Montevideo, Uruguay. So they were, respectively, the 21st and 19th positions from the list.
Three Korean jiggers which normally spend off-season time in Montevideo have moored in the port of Fray Bentos on the River Uruguay, as part of the de-centralization process launched by Uruguayan port authorities.