PAPER MILL CONFLICT: INTERNATIONAL COURT REFUSES TO ORDER SHUTDOWN OF ARGENTINE PROTEST ROAD BLOCKADES INTO URUGUAY.
Argentine environmentalists have continued to block roads into Uruguay after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague decided on Jan. 23 not to order an end to the roadblocks. The court sided against Uruguay's demand for preventive measures to end the roadblocks, which environmentalists have set up to pressure Uruguay not to build two paper mills along a river the two nations share. The protests have included calls for supporters not to vacation or bank in Uruguay. Spain has sought to mediate between the two nations in the long-running conflict regarding the wood-pulp mills, which Argentina says will pollute the Rio Uruguay (see NotiSur, 2005-09-16 and 2006-02-10). A Spanish company is building one of the mills, while a Finnish company is building the other.
Gualeguaychu crossing continuously blocked for 85 days
Argentina celebrated its victory at the ICJ where its justices ruled 14-1 that the Uruguayan legal team had not shown proof that the road blockages would do "irreparable damage." Environmental groups have repeatedly shut down access to binational crossings at Gualeguaychu and Colon, both in Argentina. The only vote for preventive measures to stop blockades came from the ad hoc judge placed on the panel by Uruguay.
The finding read by court president Rosalyn Higgins said, "There is no urgency for the measures that Uruguay seeks."
It was the second major ruling from The Hague, with the ICJ ruling last July in Uruguay's favor that constructing the two paper mills did not violate a 1975 treaty between the two countries (see NotiSur, 2006-07-28). Another decision went against Argentina in September when an ad-hoc tribunal of the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR), of which both countries are members, said the Argentine government did not act with due diligence to end blockades of international roads and bridges.
The ICJ's refusal to order the barricades dismantled, however, further emboldened protest groups, with hundreds of demonstrators temporarily blockading the last of three Argentine bridge crossings to Uruguay on Jan. 31, sealing all major land routes.
For five hours, the protesters closed the crossing at Concordia, Argentina, one of the only routes that had remained open during months of sporadic bridge blockades that had halted traffic at two crossings further downstream on the Rio Uruguay.
The rare moment when all bridge routes were blocked simultaneously came as vacationers, including many Argentines, traveled...
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