In spite of the simultaneous blockading by Argentine pickets of the three bridges leading to Uruguay, President Tabare Vazquez reiterated during a joint press conference on Saturday next to visiting US President George Bush that he will not negotiate while the blockades persist.
Uruguay's summer season (December/March) attracted 650.000 foreign tourists of which 412.000 Argentines and 115.000 Brazilians according to an official release Thursday from the Ministry of Tourism. Overall the season was described as good but less promising than 2005/06.
Uruguay's economy expanded 6.5% in 2006 said President Tabare Vazquez according to a draft copy from his state of the nation speech to be delivered March first. This is half a point less than the 7% originally estimated.
”All Mercosur members should be satisfied with the benefits and advantages obtained inside the (trade) block, because only like this will they remain hooked to the integration process”, said Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who this Monday begins a (long expected) brief six hours visit to neighbouring Uruguay.
Four crew members killed and 25 intoxicated including rescue workers was the final toll of an ammoniac escape/explosion on board a Korean jigger moored at the port of Montevideo.
The controversial Botnia-Orion pulp mill under construction in Uruguay and challenged by Argentina, is keeping to the timetable and forecasted to be officially inaugurated sometime in the third quarter of this year (July-September), according to reliable sources from the Finnish corporation.
Representatives from Uruguay and Argentina will sit to dialogue about the pulp mill controversy at the end of February or beginning of March in Madrid, according to diplomatic sources in Montevideo.
United States president George Bush will be visiting Uruguay next March 8/9 as part of a Latinamerican tour that also includes Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala and Colombia, was announced Wednesday in Montevideo.
The glitter is back at the Uruguayan peninsula long known as South America's summer playground for the rich and famous — a Latin version of Monaco or the Hamptons of New York.
A small group of Argentine pickets protesting the construction of pulp mills in a shared and jointly managed river with neighboring Uruguay took their complaints to Montevideo Monday morning where they distributed leaflets but finally had to be escorted under protection by police forces.