A CRUSHING blow has been dealt to Argentine President Carlos Menem's grandiose plans to build a huge hydro- electric project along the Argentine- Paraguayan border. Residents of Misiones province in Argentina, in a near unanimous move, voted against the building of the 3,000 mw Corpus project on environmental grounds, The proposed dam could have flooded some 35,000 ha of land in both Argentina and Paraguay resulting in the loss of nearly 40 per cent of flora and fauna of the rainforest in and around Misiones.

Menem signed an accord with his Paraguayan counterpart, Juan Carlos Wasmosy last year which essentially gave the go-ahead for the dam. The out- right rejection in the plebiscite which took place in the second week of April has, however, caused acute embarrassment for Menem. The plebiscite could scare away potential investors in the four billion dollar project, to be built entirely with private capital, from making an investment.