Greenpeace Blocks Uruguay Pulp Plant Boat in Chile
Date: 03-Mar-06
Country: CHILE
The construction of two large wood pulp mills in Uruguay has sparked environmental concerns, protests and a diplomatic crisis between Uruguay and Argentina, which is worried that runoff from the plants could contaminate waters shared by both countries.
Greenpeace said 11 of its members were removed by the navy after a five-hour protest that held the Baltimar Sirius in the port of Talcahuano, 330 miles (530 km) south of Santiago. One of the activists chained herself to the ship's anchor during the protest.
"We were removed by the navy and it looks like they want to charge us with damages because we painted the ship," Samuel Leiva, coordinator of Greenpeace's toxics program in Chile, told Reuters by telephone from Talcahuano.
Levia said Greenpeace called on the company building the plants to stop, and also called on Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez to meet to find a solution that would not harm the environment.
Uruguay has rejected a plea from Kirchner to temporarily halt the construction of the plants.
Greenpeace blocked the same building materials earlier this year when they were in Argentina awaiting transport to Uruguay by land. The materials were then rerouted to Chile to be sent to Uruguay by sea.
The $1.7 billion wood pulp plants on the Uruguay River are one of the biggest investment projects in Uruguay's history.
The mills, to be built by Finland's Metsa-Botnia and Spain's Ence, are expected to produce 1.5 million metric tonnes of wood pulp for export after they begin production in 2007.