Argentina tightens security at power plants

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ARGENTINA TIGHTENS SECURITY AT POWER PLANTS Efe ( September 25, 2001 )

Buenos Aires, Sep 25 (EFE).- Argentine Interior Minister Ramon Mestre announced Tuesday that the government had tightened security at the country's hydroelectric and nuclear power plants.

"Guards have been redoubled in power plants," Mestre told a Cabinet meeting, assuring his colleagues that in Argentina, "security is guaranteed."

Besides providing additional security at strategic locations, the Argentine government has sent additional personnel to border regions in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States.

"If it is necessary, officers will be reassigned to provide increased security," despite budgetary limitations, Mestre added.

In this way, Mestre sought to calm the controversy that began when Security Secretary Enrique Mathov told a newspaper it could not be said that Argentina was a secure country.

"These statements are taken out of context," Mestre said, acknowledging that "there are more than 100 places to cross the border and it is impossible to totally control all of them."

Mestre said that the increased security would affect both land and river borders as well as airports, emphasizing that this was a "joint effort" with Brazil and Paraguay to control what is known as the "Triple Border."

Mathov visited Asuncion and Brasilia to meet with the respective authorities and coordinate activities along their common border, where numerous Arabs reside.

Officials told EFE that security has increased significantly along the northern border, where 300 vehicles, 2,200 agents and four planes are currently in place.

The daily La Nacion reported Tuesday that security has also been increased at the reservoirs in Itaipu, in the Brazilian region of the triple border; and Yacyreta, in northern Argentina near the border with Paraguay - both on the Parana River.

There was a terrorist attack against the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992 and another on the Buenos Aires offices of a Jewish community organization in 1994, which together resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people. EFE

http://199.97.97.163/IMDS%PMAINTL0%read%/home/content/users/imds/feeds/efe_english/2001/09/25/TRI/0000-0045-MWM.SIF

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 26, 2001


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