Southern Patagonian Ice Field dispute

Delimitation in the area of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field (which was not affected by it) , Huemul, Campana, Agassiz, Heim, Mayo, and Stokes/Cervantes) On 20 August 1888, an agreement was signed to carry out the demarcation of the limits according to the 1881 treaty, appointing the experts Diego Barros Arana for Chile and Octavio Pico Burgess for Argentina. In 1892, Barros Arana presented his thesis according to which the 1881 treaty had fixed the limit in the continental divortium aquarum, which was rejected by the Argentine expert. Because differences arose on several points of the border on which the experts could not agree, the demarcation was suspended in February 1892, until the Boundary Protocol between Chile and Argentina 1893 was subscribed, which in its article 1 provides: This protocol is of particular importance, as the retreat of the glaciers could allow Pacific fjords to penetrate into Argentine territory. issued the sentence which divided the territories of the four disputed sections within the boundaries defined by the extreme claims on both sides and appointed a British officer to demarcate each section in mid-1903. The award did not issue on the ice field, for, in its article 3, it sentenced: The award thus considered that in that area the high peaks are water dividing and therefore there was no dispute. Both experts, Francisco Moreno from Argentina and Diego Barros Arana from Chile agreed on the border between Fitz Roy and Stokes. between the two mountains, was defined on the next mountains and their natural continuity: Fitz Roy, Torre, Huemul, Campana, Agassiz, Heim, Mayo, and Stokes (nowadays Cervantes). In 1916, the Mariano Moreno range was visited by an expedition; however, Francisco Moreno already knew of its existence. Demarcation [ { "type": "ExternalData", "service": "page", "title": "Southern Patagonian Ice Field dispute.map" } ] In 1941, the protocol regarding the repositioning of milestones on the Argentine–Chilean border was signed, creating the Joint Commission on Boundaries (COMIX), formed by technicians from both countries. These technicians were to be in charge of demarcating the border on the basis of the criteria established by the 1881 treaty and the 1893 protocol. leaving aside what had been agreed upon in 1881 and 1893. The polygonal line began at Fitz Roy, continued in a straight line westward to an unnamed point ( high), then crossed the Viedma glacier to Mount Puntudo and continued through East Torino, Roma, Inmaculado, Dos Picos, Teniente Feilberg, Gemelo, Stokes, and Daudet. All the points were connected by straight lines. In his presentation to the congress on 27 February 1992, the Argentine minister Guido Di Tella argued that the polygonal shape had been agreed upon because of the geophysical impossibility to determine where the high peaks that divide waters are located. After a refused appeal in 1995, Chile accepted the award. Since then, Chile has a small corridor to access Fitz Roy and the Marconi Pass was defined as an international border crossing point. == Agreement ==

On 16 December 1998, the agreement was signed to specify the route of the boundary from Fitz Roy to Mount Daudet to replace the proposed polygonal line. The agreement maintains what was signed in the 1881 treaty, high peaks that divide waters and respects the continental watershed, except in some sectors where straight lines are drawn. It also maintains access for Chile to Fitz Roy and for Argentina to Mount Stokes. The territory covered by the agreement is divided into two sectors: • Section A: from Murallón Hill to Daudet Hill. The boundary line is determined as follows: starting from Murallón Hill, the line follows the watershed that passes through East Torino, North Agassiz (Roma, mistakenly named Bertrand), South Agassiz (Bertrand), Bolados, Onelli Central, Spegazzini North and Spegazzini South. Then the line continues by straight line segments joining, successively, the points marked with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, F, G, H, I, and J. Between J and K, it follows the watershed, then by straight lines joining points L and M. It continues along the watershed to N, from where it continues along the watershed through the hills Pietrobelli, Gardener, Cacique Casimiro, and point Ñ. Then by a straight line it reaches point O and by another straight line it reaches Teniente Feilberg hill, continues along the watershed up to point P, from where by straight line segments it reaches point Q, Stokes hill, points R, S, T, and Daudet hill, where it ends its route. • Section B: from the summit of Fitz Roy to Cerro Murallón. From the summit of Fitz Roy, the line will descend along the watershed to a point at coordinates (Point A). From there, it will continue in a straight line to a point located at coordinates (Point B). Then the line will follow the parallel of the site to the west and will be drawn in accordance with the Protocol on Replacement and Placement of Landmarks on the Chilean–Argentine Border of 16 April 1941 and in the Plan of Work and General Provisions governing the Chile–Argentine Joint Boundary Commission. In the area determined between the parallels of South Latitude 49º10'00" and 49º47'30" and the meridians of West Longitude 73º38'00" and 72º59'00", the Chile–Argentina Joint Boundary Commission must draw up a chart at a scale of 1:50,000 in order to demarcate the boundary, in that sector the Additional Specific Protocol on Shared Water Resources of 2 August 1991 will not be applied. This sector corresponds to a rectangular territory that goes from a few kilometers north of the summit of Fitz Roy to Mount Murallón, in which there is an area without boundary demarcation. Within this area, however, the agreement itself demarcated the boundary from Fitz Roy to a few kilometers to the southwest (point B), and, from the same mountain to the north, it was defined by means of the 1994 Laguna del Desierto arbitration award. It was agreed that all waters flowing into and out of the Santa Cruz River shall be considered for all purposes as a water resource belonging to Argentina. Likewise, the waters flowing toward the oceanic fjords shall be considered for all purposes as water resources belonging to Chile, each party committing itself not to alter, in quantity and quality, the exclusive water resources corresponding to the other party. María Teresa Infante Caffi and José Miguel Insulza were some of the main promoters of the agreement within Chile. == Pending border definition area ==

In February 2006, Ricardo Lagos appeared in a photo with the head of the Air Force, General Osvaldo Sarabia, in the undefined border area, this caused controversy with Argentina. The exchange of communiques had occurred due to the Chilean government's complaint regarding the non-use of the rectangle of the undefined border area on maps of the Argentine Secretariat of Tourism. On 24 August 2006, the Argentine Undersecretary of Tourism stated that the maps used by the Secretariat of Tourism's website were official because they were approved by the Military Geographic Institute of Argentina (and are still used to this day). In 2006, Presidents Michelle Bachelet and Néstor Kirchner held a meeting over the cartographic controversy. Kirchner served as the governor of the Santa Cruz Province from 1991 to 2003. In the maps published in Argentina, the region continues to be shown without the white rectangle, as can be seen in a map of Santa Cruz on a website of an official Argentine agency. While in the official Chilean maps and most tourist maps, the rectangle is shown and it is clarified that the boundary is not defined according to the 1998 treaty. Newspaper reports indicate that, on 8 January 2008, daily flights began in Argentine Army helicopters, based in El Chaltén, with personnel from the National Geographic Institute to carry out the geographic surveys necessary to draw up the map prescribed in the agreement. Reports indicate that Chilean personnel acted as overseers, while the Chilean Army performed similar tasks in other sectors. Technicians of both countries worked on the definition of the border. In 2006 and 2010, the Argentine Foreign Ministry pressured to solve the dispute. In 2018, Argentina made a National Ice Inventory in which are included some disputed glaciers. From 20 September to 4 October the same year, the Argentine army traveled to into the area that is pending to be definition. This caused controversy mainly in Chile where the mayor of O'Higgins denounced the fact as a "provocation" and made a call to the central government of Chile to reinforce the sovereignty in the zone. After the Argentine government published its inventory of glaciers including undefined territory, the Chilean Foreign Ministry informed that a claim note had already been sent denying the Argentine inventory. In 2021, the Chilean president Sebastián Piñera, authorized the chart SHOA N° 8 not to showing the rectangle in the non-defined zone and expresses the continental shelf claimed by Chile in the Sea of the Southern Zone. Until before the enacted decree, and also after it, on official Chilean maps and also on tourist maps, Chilean maps show a rectangle clarifying that the boundary was not defined according to the 1998 agreement. In the map of Piñera's decree of 23 August that year, it was not shown as such and the cartography prior to 1998 was used. Both countries consider that they have about a thousand kilometers more ice than the other, which is reflected in the cartographic difference. The same year there was a controversy since the National Forest Corporation (from Chile) installed a dome in the Circo de los Altares which its southern part is claimed by both countries. , == See also ==