“Buenos Aires is the largest province in the country, if we do not count Antarctica,” said Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof
“Buenos Aires is the largest province in the country, if we do not count Antarctica”, said the Buenosairean governor Axel Kicillof as part of the announcement of the quarantine extension and in the networks, they exploded against him.
In Olivos, while announcing the extension of social, preventive and compulsory isolation to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the governor of the province of Buenos
Politics Argentina spoke with Mariana Altieri and Lucio Verdoia who were able to offer a more academic look at the issue, far from the expletives that occurred on social networks.
Mariana Altieri, head of the Meridiano Foundation and the Génera group, a political scientist from the University of Buenos Aires and a master in strategy and geopolitics from the UNDEF stated that “although there was some imprecision in the Governor’s statements when referring to Antarctica, his affirmation is truthful “and, in addition,” welcome within the framework of the need to internalize Argentina as a bi-continental country “.
Altieri added that to clarify it is worth clarifying that the Argentine Antarctic Territory, along with the Falkland Islands, Sandwich and South Georgia they are part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, which in fact is officially called “Province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands“.
Although on the new official map of the Argentine Republic all these territories appear in their correct dimension, Altieri stressed that “we have not yet incorporated in the national imagination that Argentina is within the American continent and the Antarctic continent as well, and that we have a maritime territory that is bigger than the terrestrial one “.
–
Buenos Aires and Antarctica: the explanation
The referent of the Meridiano Foundation and the Génera group stressed that for this reason, from the government and from society it is necessary to begin to incorporate that “the geographical center of the country is in Ushuaia and that the largest province is Land of Fire It’s fundamental”.
Next, the new official map of the Argentine Republic:
–
Altieri emphasized that the continent has a strategic value that “it is updated and increased over the years, presenting itself as a strategic asset in the future for humanity as a whole and, above all, for those actors who have the capacity to act on it. ”
“Its geographical positioning, its natural resources, its high scientific, tourist value and economic potential make this topic a prominent topic on the agendas of the powers, “he stressed.
Meanwhile, Lucio Verdoia, graduated in Political Science from the National University of Rio Cuarto, international analyst, specialist in Geopolitics and Defense, and leader of the Patriotic Generation of Tierra del Fuego, pointed out that “to find out if Kicillof is wrong or is wrong Right, we must only examine the hard data that the National Geographic Institute offers us (IGN)”.
“The Buenos Aires province it has a total area of 307,571 km², while the Province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands has 1,002,445 km², being the largest and the one with the longest longitudinal extension, reaching the South Pole, “he remarked.
He recalled that “when in April 1990 the National Congress passed Law 23,775 creating the Province of TDF AIAS (as its official abbreviation), it displaced the Province of Buenos Aires in the first place among the largest in territorial extension ”
“Currently, the Fuegian State has established a political-administrative division for the youngest and southernmost province of our country, counting five departments: the Ushuaia Department, the Río Grande Department, the Tolhuin Department, the South Atlantic Islands Department and, finally, the Argentine Antarctic Department. Thus, it is worth clarifying, the Antarctica Argentina it is a territorial unit fully integrated into our internal legislation, “he emphasized.
What would happen if, in a hypothetical exercise, we removed the Argentine Antarctic Department from the rest of the TDF AIAS Province? It was a question that was asked. “The Antarctica Argentina It has a total area of 965,597 km 2. Therefore, the Tierra del Fuego geography would be reduced to just over 36 thousand km 2. Note, then, that Kicillof is right: if we do not count Antarctica in TDF AIAS, Buenos Aires would continue to be the largest and most extensive Province of the Republic “, he remarked.
–
–
Verdoia understood that “the reactions on social networks against Kicillof they only reveal the deep ignorance of the Argentine geography that it has a wide sector of citizenship. “In his opinion, this ignorance” is always worrying, because we Argentines are among the few countries in the region that have yet to complete their territorial integrity, broken, amputated by the British imperialism that projects its predatory and militaristic power from the Malvinas to Our Antarctica. ”
He indicated that “when we talk about TDF AIAS, when we talk about Antarctica, we must pay special attention.” “There is a generation of Argentines who have grown up thinking of Antarctica as a small redoubt, graphed on another geographical scale, on the old national map. On that old school map, hegemonic until the beginning of our century, the difference in scale between the Pole Sur and Quiaca represent the image of a split country, where continental Argentina is privileged and oceanic, insular and bicontinental Antarctic Argentina is relegated, “he said.
Likewise, he recalled Law 26,651, which establishes the obligation to use the bicontinental map of the Argentine Republic prepared by the IGN. “After the approval in 2016 by the CPLC of CONVEMAR (United Nations), of the study of the limit of the Argentine Continental Platform (PCA) carried out by COPLA for our country, the map of our homeland changed radically,” he maintained. Verdoia.
In your opinion, “The international recognition of the layout of the platform meant the realization of an old national desire: the principle of natural extension of the territory under the sea. The Argentine Continental Shelf It unifies the Argentine South American continental territory with Antarctica where we maintain an unquestionable historical presence, counting among our achievements that of having built the first permanent human community on the white continent “.
“More recently, – he added – on June 11, the current national government led by Alberto Fernández has sent to the National Congress a project that includes the officialization of a new bicontinental map where the national territory of our country appears faithfully represented and the PCA occupies the leading place that in fact it has “.
This new map has the legal and diplomatic support given by the recognition of the Argentine outer limit, and fully represents the oceanic and bi-continental character of our country and alerts us, once again, to the persistence of British colonialism in the 21st century over our insular spaces that now occupy the geographical center of our country.
– .
