Buenos Aires – Protesters decided to continue to block for an “indefinite” period the General San Martin Bridge linking Argentina and Uruguay on Sunday on the 10th day of their protest against the building of two paper mills near the Argentine city of Gualeguaychu.
Residents of that city decided on Saturday night to continue blocking Route 136, which leads to the bridge – one of three international crossing points between the two nations – to protest the plants the Spanish firm ENCE and the Finnish company Botnia are planning to build on the Uruguay River in the neighboring Uruguayan city of Fray Bentos.
The demonstrators, who are concentrated at the Environmental Assembly in Gualeguaychu, agreed to meet again at 8 p.m. (2300 GMT) on Monday to decide whether they will continue their protest against the mills, which they say are “highly contaminating.”
In addition, residents of the nearby Argentine city of Colon on Sunday are traveling in a caravan to the bridge leading to the Uruguayan city of Paysandu, where there will be “a demonstration against the pollution the paper mills will create in the Uruguay River,” Colon Environmental Assembly member Gisela Eberle told EFE.
The conflict over the mills has sparked a controversy between the Argentine government, which questions the project, and the Uruguayan administration, which supports it.
Ence and Botnia are planning to invest $1.8 billion in the project, the biggest outlay of direct foreign investment in Uruguay’s history, creating jobs and boosting an economy still recovering from a financial crisis in 2002.
However, the government of Argentina’s Entre Rios province says that if the plants are built it will sustain $1.3 billion in environmental and tourist revenue losses over the next 20 years.
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner several days ago came down on the side of the Gualeguaychu protesters and signed a decree sending the controversy between the two governments to the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, at The Hague.
This week, Argentina’s Congress will hold a series of meetings with Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana, Entre Rios Gov. Jorge Busti and the members of the Gualeguaychu Environmental Assembly to evaluate their support for the presentation of Argentina’s case before the ICJ.
The Gualeguaychu protesters received a telephone call on Saturday night from Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who asked them to stop their bridge blockage “as a goodwill gesture,” after a meeting he had with Uruguayan Deputy Foreign Minister Belela Herrera.
However, the protesters decided to continue their protest.
Meanwhile, the Uruguayan Catholic Church offered to mediate the conflict between the two nations.
“If the Church can lend a hand, God be praised,” said Montevideo Archbishop Nicolas Cotugno said in statements published on Sunday in the local media.
Uruguay’s Environment Minister Jaime Igorra repeated Saturday that his country has taken every precaution needed to make sure that paper mills being built in Fray Bentos cause no pollution, adding that Argentine protest actions have “serious” consequences.
Igorra said that roadblocks mounted by the Gualeguaychu protesters “cause losses to the nations of Mercosur.”
“Uruguay’s government has taken all due precautions in the matter,” Igorra said on Buenos Aires station Radio del Plata, in defending construction of the plants.
He said that the plants are equipped with “superior, environment-friendly technology” and are supervised by “62 technicians who put together an environmental-impact report which has been corroborated by international consultants.”
