In what was considered a change in approach by the Argentine Government, several minivans and cars with Gualeguaychú activists that were heading to the UNASUR summit in Campana, Buenos Aires province, were delayed Tuesday by police at a crucial inter-provincial bridge.
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.
Uruguay and Argentine presidents will be meeting Wednesday in Buenos Aires to analyze the aftermath of the International Court of Justice judgement on the pulp mills controversy and hopefully find a way, to peacefully lift Argentine protestors’ pickets that have been blocking since 2006 a bridge linking the neighbouring countries.
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.
Protesters in the southern Peruvian province of Islay ended their six-day general strike after the government agreed to temporarily suspend a controversial mining project.
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.