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October 6, 2013, Border Argentina-Uruguay
After nearly a decade of protest against the installation of the Finnish BOTNIA-UPM pulp mill on the Argentine-Uruguayan border, droves of people in the thousands marched anew, this time to protest the unilateral Uruguayan decision to increase production by 20% at the river-border pulp mill.
The Uruguayan government decision to give UPM rights to increase paper pulp production at Fray Bentos, the small Uruguayan town on the Argentine-Uruguayan river border, received strong repudiation from local residents and environmentalists on both sides of the border.
Residents in Gualeguaychú, which became globally recognized for a relentless opposition which ended up in a closure of the border for nearly 4 years, in protest of the IFC-financed pulp mill, came in a multi-kilometer caraven to the international bridge, site of the multi-year roadblock of the past. This time, however, it was the Uruguayan government who decided to close the border, suspending international traffic for the day of the march.
The Argentine government is evaluating the possibility of returning to the International Court of Justice with new evidence of Uruguay’s violation of the Uruguay River Treaty.
CEDHA, author of numerous international complaints against the pulp mill and those actors that made the investment possible, accompanied the community to the bridge.
View Video of Declaration Presented at the March: http://youtu.be/jt9n91p-Q3w
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