Uruguay and Argentina at odds over paper mill

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A flotilla of skiffs and dinghies guided by green-thinking Argentine activists didn’t deter the inauguration of a port for a new paper mill on a river separating tiny Uruguay and its huge neighbor, Argentina.

The project by Finnish pulp producer Botnia has opened a cavernous rift in the normally close relations between the two nations, which share much in history, culture and ethnic makeup. It has become a classic conflict of conservation versus globalized investment.

Argentina opponents, who say the plant will poison the scenic Uruguay River, have been thwarted in efforts to halt the $1-billion-plus project, which is on the Uruguayan side of the river. An entire ecosystem is being sacrificed to produce tissues, critics say. ‘Botnia go home,’ read a banner hoisted by protest craft Wednesday near the new port and the mill’s looming smokestack.

Uruguayan officials and the company deny allegations of heightened contamination, saying the latest clean technology will be used. The plant will use Uruguayan-grown trees to yield pulp for paper products marketed in Europe and Asia. Production is to begin this year.

In an article in La Nación, commentator Jorge Elias lamented that both nations had failed to avert a controversy ‘that divides something beyond the waters of their shared rivers.’

Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell and Andrés D’Alessandro in Buenos Aires