An Argentine court has ordered the suspension of a project in Mendoza province to drill for oil at Llancanelo Lagoon, an internationally recognized wetland. In a March 14 decision, the Supreme Court for Mendoza province ruled favorably on a complaint lodged by the Mendoza environmental group Oikos Red Ambiental. Oikos argued that the US$200 million oil project by the Spanish-owned company Repsol-YPF would contravene the Argentine Constitution’s Article 41, which grants citizens the right to a healthy environment, as well as a Mendoza law (6045) prohibiting oil and mining activity in the province’s protected areas. It also alleged deficiencies in the project’s environmental-impact assessment—among them, that the project failed to fulfill public-hearings requirements, inaccurately described the boundaries of the... [Log in to read more]