Why Parlasur denounces U.S. interference in the Paraná-Paraguay waterway

The Mercosur Parliament raised a note of protest to Paraguay for including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in studies for river navigation of the Paraná-Paraguay waterway, in a clear U.S. intervention in the Silver Basin.

The Paraguayan government unleashed a conflict with its Mercosur partners by backing the announcement made in September by U.S. Ambassador to Asuncion, Marc Ostfield, about the collaboration of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Master Plan for the Paraná-Paraguay waterway.

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The U.S. collaboration to improve river navigability “will potentiate the benefits of the Paraguay River as a main channel of trade,” U.S. Ambassador Marc Ostfield said in September.

In an exclusive conversation with Sputnik, Ricardo Canese, a Mercosur (Parlasur) parliamentarian and secretary of International Relations of Paraguay’s Grand Front, denounced a new scenario of U.S. State Department interference in a region “that has the technical capacity” to generate autonomous water engineering studies and projects.

“We are concerned that in a totally unnecessary way the arrival of technicians from abroad linked to the Armed Forces of a country that has as many conflicts in the world as the United States is being spurred,” Canese stated.

The proposal for studies of the behavior and navigability of the Paraguay River in the sovereign stretch of the same has the benefaction of the Government of Mario Abdo Benítez.

Paraguayan Foreign Minister Julio César Arriola offered “all institutional support required in the development, design and implementation” of the Master Plan for the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PARAGUAY RIVER AND THE SILVER BASIN

The Paraguay River originates in the Brazilian Pantanal, crosses Paraguayan territory, joins the Paraná River in Argentina and empties into the Río de la Plata.

The Paraguay River, along with the Paraná and Uruguay Rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean through the Rio de la Plata, are part of the Cuenca del Plata Watershed, where the transit of goods, mainly agricultural, has increased.

The increase in navigation of the tributaries of the Silver Basin has aroused the interest of large foreign investors, mainly Chinese, for infrastructure projects such as dredging, ports, among others.

U.S. participation in Paraguay’s Master Plan is framed in positioning the South American country as a strategic enclave for U.S. interests, being the only country in the region that does not recognize China in diplomatic terms.

According to Canese, “it is not justified” to involve the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Paraguay.

“Throughout the region, there is enough technology to do a Silver Basin planning, there is enough scientific and technological knowledge,” he clarified.

The Paraguayan parliamentarian of Mercosur stated that “any extrazone armed force, and in this case the United States, should be outside the Silver Basin, would be introducing a conflict that does not have to exist in a peace zone like Latin America and in particular Mercosur.

Canese pointed his criticisms at Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez, who “has always sought that kind of closer relationship with the U.S. Government, including with the armed forces,” and also questioned former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes (2013-2013). 2018), “who signed an agreement to the same effect during his tenure.”

“It draws attention that having not approved a formal agreement signed between the United States and Paraguay during the period of Horacio Cartes, now without giving participation to the Congress of Paraguay, this conspiracy comes out,” Canese denounced.

The Mercosur parliamentarian opined that Washington “has a very clearly interventionist policy, but the thing has been coming for a long time. I don’t think it’s a personal matter of Ambassador Ostfield, but of the U.S. State Department, which has that line throughout.” the world,” he concluded.

With information from Sputnik