Walter Cortés, elected mayor of the city of Bariloche, in an image from his social networks.
The poor condition of the highway that connects Argentine cities on the side of the Andes threatens to become an international conflict. A group of mayors from the provinces of Chubut and Río Negro, in the north of Argentine Patagonia, met this Wednesday to demand from the national government the rehabilitation of their section of National Road 40, which connects the country from north to south, control of trucks, who come from Chile and use the highway to reach the ports in the south of the country. The demand reached major Argentine media this week, reporting on previous statements by Wálter Cortés, the newly elected mayor of the city of Bariloche, in which he threatened to close passage to foreign trucks. His words were repeated this Wednesday at the Chilean Foreign Ministry, which insisted that the agreements signed by both countries made it impossible to prevent the transit.
“We have to stand up and say, ‘Nobody comes through here until the road is fixed.’ You have to make drastic decisions. Chilean trucks drive past here and stop. Chilean trucks can no longer pass, it’s over. “People are destroying their cars, we are in this unfortunate situation,” Cortés said in a radio interview on September 15 after winning the mayorship of Bariloche, a tourist center about 100 kilometers from the Chilean border. It was neither the first nor the last time that the elected mayor, who will take office on December 10, denounced that the passage of hundreds of trucks from Chile to Argentina was leading to the destruction of routes in his region.
After his threats reached the national media this Wednesday, he tried to calm the situation. “It’s not about blocking the path, we want to make the Argentine authorities aware that they are determining the route,” he said in a television interview on a Chilean program. According to the local newspaper Río Negro, Cortés and other mayors of the region decided at their meeting this Wednesday that they will “take action” at the end of the year if their demands are not heard.
In Chile this morning, freight transport representatives met with the chief of staff of the undersecretary of the Interior Ministry at the presidential palace, where, among other things, they expressed their “concern” about the threats made by the elected mayor of Bariloche. The National Directorate of State Borders and Limits was also present at the meeting. Juan Monasterio, president of the Trade Association of International Road Freight Operators (Agetich), claims that the meeting was kept quiet because he was assured that the foreign ministries of both countries were in contact.
Sources from the Chilean Foreign Ministry tell EL PAIS that “it is not possible to prevent the transit of vans to one country or the other,” since the transit of trucks from both countries has been regulated since 1974. They also stated that the current traffic situation was “completely normal”.
Hundreds of trucks cross the border between Chile and Argentina every day at the height of the mountains, transporting exports to their ports in southern Patagonia under the agreement signed in 1974 “to connect two points of the same country through the territory of the other.” Thanks to the agreement, Chilean trucks carrying cargo or passengers to their southern provinces will be allowed to pass through Argentina, in return Argentine trucks will be allowed to do the same to reach the Tierra del Fuego province, which is connected to the continent only by territory. Chilean.
Agetich explains that the contract allows trucks in the area in question to begin their journey in Chile, pass through Argentine territory and return to Chile, their final destination, to serve the southern tip of the South American country. “We appeal to the reciprocity of the contracts,” says Monasterio, and hopes that Cortés’ statements “will not have an impact on the interruption of truck traffic, because it would pose a problem for us.” This is because there is no Infrastructure exists to transport goods through the Chilean maritime area.
From Cardenal Samoré, the trucks take the national road 40, which in this part of Patagonia passes through towns such as Villa La Angostura, Bariloche or El Bolsón, as well as towns such as Epuyén, Esquel and El Hoyo. The mayors of all these places met this Wednesday to demand improvements to their roads in the face of heavy traffic. Most report that this is a legal dispute that has been going on for years.
The parliamentary elections in Argentina were an opportunity to renew demands. Río Negro, the province that includes Bariloche, has also elected a new governor, Alberto Weretilneck, who has recently declared that when he takes office he will file a legal action against the road authorities in order to repair the route of National Highway 40 ” The situation on the R40 is alarming, endangering people’s lives and seriously threatening tourism, the region’s main source of income,” he wrote in a tweet after a tour of the area.
Weretilneck will take over as governor of his province on December 10, as will Cortés, the elected mayor of Bariloche. None of these will be the news of the day. The new Argentine president, who will be elected on October 22nd, will also take office this Sunday. In an election campaign marked by the economic crisis and the need for budget adjustment, the favorite is the far-right Javier Milei, who, in his rise from TV talk show economist to political sensation, even said: “All streets.” should be privatized so that the neighbors regulate the income.