HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
Some islands located south of Tierra del Fuego
The Beagle Conflict (Spanish: Conflicto del Beagle) was a border dispute between Argentina and Chile over the possession of the Picton, Lennox and Nueva islands and sea located south of Tierra del Fuego which took both countries to the brink of war in 1978. The Beagle conflict is seen as the main reason for Chilean support to the United Kingdom during the Falklands War of 1982. The dispute ended in the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1984.
Contents |
Summary of Argentine cartography since 1881 in the Beagle Channel. The named maps can be looked in the Beagle Channel cartography since 1881
With a strategic location south of the Beagle Channel and with a congruent maritime extension of 30,000 square miles, including fishing and mineral (presumably oil) rights, and possible Antarctic Peninsula territorial claims, the zone had been in contention since the early 20th Century.
Although the first agreement to limit weapons acquisitions dated from 1902, the two sides still had in 1984 nearly 50 boundary disputes along their common border of 5,308 kilometres, consequently making relations between them very cold.
1971 Chile and Argentina sign an agreement formally submitting the Beagle Channel issue to binding arbitration under auspices of Britain\'s Queen Elizabeth II. The court that was to decide the controversy was composed of five selected judges from the International Court of Justice at The Hague. The court of arbitration\'s final decision would be submitted to the British Crown, which was then to recommend acceptance or rejection of the award of the court but not to modify it. On May 2, 1977 the court ruled that the islands and all adjacent formations belonged to Chile. See Award 1977, in Award 1977.
Argentina repudiated the British arbitral award and created a plan for Operación Soberanía, the invasion of the islands and continental ChileSee Argentine newspaper Clarín of Buenos Aires, 20 December 1998.
In Chile, where Augusto Pinochet had absolute authority and was largely unaccountable to other elements within the military, this was a minor issue.
But in Argentina, the consequences of the dispute for internal politics were more significant. The conflict became a keyword for the extreme nationalist elements within the military junta that controlled the country until 1983. Among many junta members, a conciliatory approach to Chile came to be regarded as a sign of weakness, giving the dispute far-reaching consequences at the highest levels of Argentine politics. This ultimately produced an environment in which relatively moderate decision makers assumed a more confrontational posture due to the fear of removalSee Mark Laudy, The Vatican Mediation of the Beagle Channel Dispute.
Bilateral negotiations failed. On 25 January 1978 Argentina declared the award fundamentally null and soon relations became extremely tense. Two bilateral commissions, seeking a solution, accomplished little. Chile asked for ICJ mediation in order to use the better juridical arguments; Argentina sought continued direct negotiation to exert military pressure on Chile.
Both countries made important military deployments moving to the brink of open warfare. On December 9 1978, Argentina sent a naval squadron to the Beagle Channel region, while Chile followed suit.
On December 11, Pope John Paul II sent a personal message to both presidents urging a peaceful solution, but keeping up the original arbitration of the United Kingdom. War preparations continued as did diplomatic efforts to avert hostilities. Argentina complained to the United Nations; Chile asked the Organization of American States to convene. On December 22 Argentina started the Operación SoberaníaSee La Nación Buenos Aires 12 August 1996, but few hours later was aborted. The junta in Buenos Aires accepted the Pope\'s mediation. Chile had done so the previous day. They would allow the Pope to mediate the dispute through the good offices of Cardinal Antonio Samoré, his special envoy.
On January 9, 1979 the Act of Montevideo was signed in Uruguay pledging both sides to a peaceful solution and a return to the military situation of early 1977.
1980 Argentina rejected the Pope\'s proposal (already accepted by Chile).
The detention of prisoners on both sides of the border, the following border closing by Argentina, 28 April 1981, and the Argentine repudiation of the General Treaty on the Judicial Settlement of Disputes in January 1982 maintained the danger of war. Six weeks before the Falklands War Argentina provoked the ARA Gurruchaga incident with Chile at Deceit Island.
In 1982, Argentina went to war against the United Kingdom in the Falklands War and again both countries deployed their respective militaries to the border.
In 1982 Argentina still officially considered Chile an enemyThe Informe Rattenbach, an Argentine official investigation over the war, confirms that. See §§ 718 inciso a) in Informe Rattenbach. One of the reasons given for the absence of the Argentine Navy and higher numbers of soldiers during the Falklands War was to keep them in reserve in case they were needed against Chile. Chile denied support for Argentina at the TIAR due to its defensive nature while Argentina was the aggressor in this war, which prevented a later attack against Chile as a consequence of the Falklands warKalevi Jaakko Holsti, The State, War, and the State of War Cambridge Studies in International Relations, 1996, 271 pages, ISBN 052157790X. See also here On page 160: Displaying the mentality of the Argentine military regime in the 1970s, as another example, there was "Plan Rosario" accordingto which Argentina would attack the Malvinas and then turn to settle the Beagle Channel problem by force. The sequence, according to the plan, could also be reversed."\'En su lógica\'", Rio Negro SA, 2005-09-01. Retrieved on 2005-09-05. (Spanish) . Anglo-Chilean interests deteriorated due to the Sheila Cassidy Affair, the use of British made Hawker Hunter aircraft during the Coup d\'Etat in 1973, and the violations of human rights by the Pinochet regime. During the war Chile provided the UK with ‘limited, but significant information’See Chilean connection.
The Treaty of 1984 on the map.
No significant reduction in tensions between Argentina and Chile occurred until the democratic government of Raúl Alfonsín took office in Argentina in December 1983.
Still isolated diplomatically due to the Falklands crisis, the Alfonsin administration made great efforts to stabilize the border situation. Finally, on January 23, 1984 Argentina and Chile signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship (Spanish: Tratado de Paz y Amistad) at Vatican City giving the islands to Chile but maritime rights to Argentina.
Alfonsín called for a national plebiscite and after 80 percent of the Argentine electorate voted to accept the Vatican-mediated compromise, a protocol of agreement to a treaty was signed on October 18, 1984.
The Treaty was ratified by Argentina on March 14, 1985 and by Chile on April 12.
The Treaty also includes the exact delimitation of the Strait of Magellan, exchange of navigation rights between the Strait of Magellan and the Beagle Channel and a comprehensive body of legislation for the Judicial Settlement of Disputes
In spite of having a common history when they fought together for their independence and the other neighbouring countries (for further reading, check José de San Martín and Bernardo O\'Higgins), Argentina and Chile suffered very difficult moments in their relations during the twentieth century but never a war.
During the 1990s, under the presidency of Carlos Menem in Argentina and Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle in Chile, they resolved almost all of their disputes, e.g. Laguna del Desierto and both countries began to work together both economically and militarily.
The mountain pass of Puyehue was renamed Cardenal Antonio Samoré Pass after Antonio Samoré one of the mediators from the Vatican state in the conflict.
In 2005 the Chilean movie Mi Mejor Enemigo (English: My best enemy. - the title is a oxymoron) was released. The film recreates the story of a simple recruit in late 1978 when both countries were on the brink of war.
Leon Gieco created the song "Sólo le pido a Dios"See youtube (I only Ask of God) 1978 as a response to the warmongering in Argentina. Three years later, during the Falklands War, the Argentine Junta used the song against the Falklands War after the invasionSee article in La Nación, Argentina, 18 September 2006.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
| Territorial disputes involving Argentina |
|---|
Argentine Antarctica · Falkland Islands (Malvinas) · South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands · Southern Patagonian Ice Field |
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
