Paper mill row tests Argentina-Uruguay friendship
Source: Reuters
By Damian Wroclavsky BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev offered to mediate. Now the king of Spain is trying to help. But some fear a bitter split between Argentina and Uruguay over a paper mill may be beyond repair. Residents of the Argentine tourist town of Gualeguaychu have blocked a main bridge leading to Uruguay during many weekends this year to protest the construction of the $1 billion pulp plant, which can be seen on the other side of the River Uruguay. The Argentine government is concerned about contamination and the plant's impact on tourism and fishing, while Uruguay insists the project is environmentally safe. Both sides have turned to an international court and, with no end to the conflict in sight and desperation rising, Uruguay last week sent troops to the plant being built by a Finnish company, fearing sabotage by protesters. Argentina and Uruguay historically have had a good relationship but negotiators wonder if enough goodwill remains after months of increasingly fraught deadlock. "There's an irrationality by those who are piling on the threats and those who are putting up defenses," said Raul Estrada Oyuela, an environmental affairs representative at Argentina's Foreign Ministry. "It's gone too far and it has to stop. Hopefully the involvement of (Spain's King Juan Carlos) will help." Uruguay says it will not return to direct talks with Buenos Aires while the roadblocks continue and Argentine President Nestor Kirchner refuses to stop the protests by force. Some critics say Kirchner is letting the Gualeguaychu protesters dictate his foreign policy, while many Uruguayans think he wants to look like the champion of the national interest ahead of presidential elections in October 2007. The blockades began a year ago and for the first time, the protesters briefly blocked all three highways linking the neighbors during the weekend. Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez appeared pessimistic about a quick solution. "The situation is getting worse as time goes on," he was quoted as saying in Sunday's edition of Uruguayan newspaper El Pais. He said both sides needed to avoid "serious consequences, a scar on the relationship between our peoples." DIE-HARD PROTESTERS The plant, being built by Finland's Metsa-Botnia, represents one of the biggest investments in Uruguay, a country of 3.5 million people sandwiched between economic powerhouses Brazil and Argentina. Buenos Aires wants the mill moved far from Gualeguaychu, home to the most die-hard protesters, and the Kirchner government has taken its complaint to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing Uruguay of violating a bilateral treaty relating to the use of the river. Uruguay also has turned to the court, denouncing Argentina over the roadblocks. The roadblocks have gained fresh momentum just as tens of thousands of Argentines get ready to flock to Uruguayan beach resorts such as glitzy Punta del Este -- a magnet for wealthy tourists during the Southern Hemisphere summer. Meanwhile, celebrities on both sides of the border have called on their governments to work things out and many people are baffled over how things got so nasty. "I'm surprised it's ended up in the international court and the troops and the barriers Uruguay's imposing on Argentine products," said office worker Pablo Peralta in Buenos Aires. As the tension mounts, the mediation of Spain's king is seen as a glimmer of hope and some political analysts think the dispute has gotten as bad as it can possibly get. "I think in the end there'll be a sort of truce between the two countries, in political terms," said Riordan Roett, director of Latin American studies at Johns Hopkins University. "The language may continue to be confrontational but ... I think it's probably escalated as much as it is going to." (With additional reporting by Conrado Hornos and Patricia Avila in Montevideo and Hilary Burke in Buenos Aires)
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