Uruguay reacts against Argentina's intimidations
By Tony Pagliaro
26.01.06 | For months the three “international bridges” that cross the Uruguay river, connecting Argentina and Uruguay, have suffered systematic and sudden transit cuts caused by alleged Argentine “environmental activists” protesting against the building of three pulp and paper plants in the Uruguayan side of the river.
Since it is now summer, this has caused very serious losses to the Uruguayan tourism industry, which receives a high flow of Argentine visitors willing to rest in the quiet Uruguayan beaches, whose access have been dramatically cut by the protests.
The Governor of Entre Ríos, Jorge Busti, has in fact personally encouraged such protests, even by granting school and administrative “holidays” so as to “allow” the students and public employees to participate in the “spontaneous” demonstrations against the Uruguayan authorities.
Uruguay should definitely not be too surprised in view of the fact that authoritarianism remains deeply entrenched in Argentine politics. Today the Uruguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ricardo Gargano, who happens to be the President of Uruguay’s Socialist Party, issued a strongly worded statement openly condemning Argentina’s policy “of threats and terror”.
Nobody is surprised in the Río de la Plata area, the Kichners (who carefully follow Hugo Chávez political methods and “leadership”) are known to constantly intimidate everybody to try to obtain whatever they may want. They bully; resort to the shameful use of Argentina’s “functional” federal judges; and decide tax and social security inspections as a threat against those who dare to dissent.
Minister Gargano has found out, the hard way, how many Argentine citizens do feel about the unhappy era of the Kirchners “ruling”.
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