The conflict ended in 2010, during the presidencies of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina) and José Mujica (Uruguay), with the establishment of a joint coordination of the activities in the river.

[13] Chile became indirectly involved, as several Chilean trucks carrying equipment and materials for the Botnia project across Argentina were detained by the roadblocks before they could cross the border to Uruguay near the end of their journey.

On 30 January the High Level Technical Group (Grupo Técnico de Alto Nivel, GTAN), a joint Argentine-Uruguayan commission for the study of the impact of the paper factories, ended deliberations with the two countries issuing separate statements.

[14] The government of Entre Ríos, in the meantime, distributed 100,000 pamphlets about the paper factories and their alleged impact among those attending the Cosquín music festival in Córdoba, which ended on 29 January.

On 3 February 2006 members of the Gualeguaychú Environmental Assembly had started a long-term blockade of Route 136, leading to the Libertador General San Martín Bridge and to Fray Bentos.

At the beginning of the blockade, Jorge Eduardo Lozano, designated bishop of Gualeguaychú, stated that he supported the protesters because theirs was "a just cause", though he also spoke of the need to look for "reasonable alternatives".

In the meantime, the citizens of Gualeguaychú, after an assembly, rejected the mediation of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; he had asked them to end the blockades while talks were conducted.

[19] The Environmental Assembly of Colón, on the other hand, decided to continue blocking Route 135 and the international pass over the General Artigas Bridge, 80 km north of Gualeguaychú.

[20] On 26 March, one of the companies building the pulp mills, Botnia, announced that it would suspend the installation works for 90 days "in order to contribute to the opening of dialogue and answering to the request of Presidents Tabaré Vázquez and Néstor Kirchner."

The Uruguayan government also considered a demand on the International Court of Justice, claiming that the blockades have violated human rights by preventing the free circulation of persons and goods.

The presidents' official photo shooting was briefly interrupted by the presence of the Queen of the Carnival of Gualeguaychú, 26-year-old Evangelina Carrozzo, who had entered the event along with a Greenpeace activist, both with press passes obtained by a weekly newspaper of Morón, Buenos Aires whose director has collaborated with environmentalists before.

As the shooting was about to begin, Carrozzo swiftly took off her overcoat (leaving her wearing only a tasselled bikini), produced a paper banner that read "No pulpmill pollution" in Spanish and English, and paraded with it before the 58 heads of state, before being taken away by security.

[32] Jukka Uosukainen, head of the International Relations of the Finnish Environment Ministry, acknowledged concerns that the conflict is harming the country's reputation on environmental issues, and said that Argentine officials were invited to visit pulp mills in Finland but they refused.

Picolotti, a lawyer who founded and presided the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA), used to counsel not only the Gualeguaychú Assembly, but also Entre Ríos governor Busti.

The CEDHA, now presided by Picolotti's husband Daniel Taillant, provided legal advice to the Argentine case at the ICJ, and later organized a tour of several countries to raise international awareness of the pulp mills and present arguments against their construction.

[37] The next day, the Gualeguaychú Assembly organized a protest demonstration, with cars, bicycles and people on foot marching along National Route 14 and finally gathering in the city.

[38] On 6 August 2006, taking advantage of the high circulation of vehicles due to the winter vacations, residents of Concepción del Uruguay, Gualeguaychú, Colón and other towns, along with some Uruguayan families, handed out flyers to drivers along National Route 14, to raise awareness about the risks of pollution and inform them about their demands.

In a critical report, The Economist proposes that Arregui might actually have come under pressure from the Argentine government, known for its interventionism in economy, maybe as a show of strength by President Néstor Kirchner faced with the upcoming 2007 elections.

On 24 September, thousands of Gualeguaychú residents marched with cars, motorcycles, and bicycles along Route 136, effectively blocking traffic for more than 3 hours, celebrating ENCE's withdrawal and demanding that Botnia follow suit.

However, the photo had been taken with a 300 mm telephoto lens: the mill hardly visible in the horizon in the 12 kilometer distance is presented to be located in the island close to the Argentine coast.

[48] On 12 October the World Bank Group's International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) released the final cumulative impact study for the two proposed pulp mill projects.

Both institutions were confident that the findings demonstrated that the mills will comply with IFC and MIGA's environmental and social policies, while generating significant economic benefits for the Uruguayan economy.

The leaflets distributed for travellers described dire consequences for the life in Gualeguaychú (dioxin pollution, acid rain, increased incidence of cancer) when the mills start operations (the same accusations available in CEDHA homepages).

[62] José Pouler, a member of the Gualeguaychú Assembly, expressed support for the facilitation, calling it "a good initiative", though he pointed out that, to them, the construction of the mills on the river "is not negotiable".

The press release from the IFC states that "the two organizations, after completing a thorough review of the facts, are convinced that the mill will generate significant economic benefits for Uruguay and cause no environmental harm.

"[64] The Argentine president, Néstor Kirchner, reacted to the news by attacking what he considers the stubbornness of his Uruguayan counterpart and expressing that the approval was a victory for the international interests that want the region to be a global waste dump.

[66] On 23 January 2007, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected, by 14 votes against one, Uruguay's request for "provisional measures" against Argentina —a form of injunctive relief—aimed at putting an immediate end to blockades of bridges and roads.

The Court consequently finds that the circumstances of the case are not such as to require the indication of the first provisional measure requested by Uruguay (to prevent or end the interruption of transit between the two States and inter alia the blockading of the bridges and roads linking them)".

[75] Presidents Cristina Fernández and José Mujica will meet at Quinta de Olivos in Buenos Aires to analyze the result[76] In December 2009 Finnish UPM-Kymmene Oyj became the sole owner of the pulp mill.

[77] On 19 June, the environmentalists lift the bridge blockade[78] and on 28 July both presidents agreed to create a binational commission CARU (Spanish: Comisión Administradora del Río Uruguay) in order to monitor the river pollution officially ending the dispute as a basic agreement that satisfies both societies and the two governments[79] Tabaré Vázquez mentioned in October 2011 that he had considered the possibility of an armed conflict with Argentina over the topic, and sought support of the United States (during the presidency of George Bush) in such a case.