One million take part in prayer day for peace. PRAYERS for reconciliation were said in more than 10,000 churches in Argentina and Uruguay last Sunday after a joint appeal from the bishops’ conferences of the two countries, reports Colin Harding.Church leaders had offered earlier this year to mediate in an acrimonious dispute over the construction of two paper-pulp mills on the Uruguayan side of the river separating the two neighbours. Argentina opposes the contruction on environmental grounds. The offer of mediation was not taken up.
Normally friendly relations have deteriorated to such an extent that Presidents Néstor Kirchner (Argentina) and Tabaré Vázquez (Uruguay) are no longer on speaking terms, and Argentina has taken its case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which will hold its first hearings on 8 June.
More than a million people, of many different faiths, were reported to have taken part in the day of prayer. There seems little prospect, however, of their governments returning to the negotiating table.
President Vázquez presided over a rally in Montevideo on 29 May, at which all shades of political opinion assured him of their support for the paper mills.
