The Southern Patagonian ice field dispute is a border dispute between Argentina and Chile over the delineation of the boundary line between the two countries on the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, a large expanse of glaciers located in the Patagonian Andes, which is the largest non-polar continental ice field with land access. It is called continental ice in Argentina and southern ice field in Chile, to differentiate it from the northern ice field. As of , the Argentine–Chilean border in this sector is still pending definition according to the 1998 agreement signed by both countries. The original border was defined 100 years prior on 1 October 1898 by experts from both countries.
History
Delimitation
The area was delimited by the Treaty of 1881 between Argentina and Chile
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.
Experts have shown that it is always convenient to take the mountain as a support for the boundary and not the watershed. Rey Balmaceda tells an anecdote of Perito Moreno, who diverted the course of the Fénix River, with the help of a crew of laborers, so that it would stop heading toward the Pacific and would swell the waters of the Deseado River. With this, Moreno wanted to demonstrate that the true basis for drawing a solid and efficient line is the mountains and not the course of the waters.
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.
In January 1894, the Chilean expert declared that he understood that the main chain of the Andes was the uninterrupted line of peaks that divide the waters and that form the separation of the basins or tributary hydrographic regions of the Atlantic to the east and the Pacific to the west. The Argentine expert Norberto Quirno Costa (Pico's replacement) replied that they had no authority to define the meaning of the main chain of the Andes as they were only demarcators.
In April 1896, the agreement to facilitate territorial delimitation operations was signed, which appointed the British monarch to arbitrate in case of disagreements. In the minutes of 1 October 1898, signed by Diego Barros Arana and Francisco Moreno (Quirno Costa's replacement, who resigned in September 1896) and by his assistants Clemente Onelli (from Argentina) and Alejandro Bertrand (from Chile), the experts:
On the attached map, point 331 is Fitz Roy and 332 is Mount Stokes, both being agreed as boundary markers, although the former is not on the watershed and was taken as a natural landmark. As the experts did not access the area, they established the caveat that if the geographical principle did not run where they had supposed it did, there could be modifications.
When the experts could not agree on different stretches of the border, it was decided in 1898 to resort to Article VI paragraph 2 of the 1881 Boundary Treaty and request Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom for an arbitration ruling on the issue, who appointed three British judges. In 1901, one of the judges, Colonel Thomas Holdich, traveled to study the disputed areas.
The Argentine government argued that the boundary should essentially be an orographic boundary along the highest peaks of the Andes and the Chilean government argued for a continental watershed. The tribunal considered that the language of the 1881 treaty and the 1893 protocol was ambiguous and susceptible to various interpretations, the two positions being irreconcilable. On 20 May 1902, King Edward VII 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. Since 1898, the demarcation of the border in the ice field according to the minutes, 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.
+ Landmarks recorded in the 1898 experts' records,and the location they understood them to be at Landmark Coordinates (DMS) Coordinates (decimal) Fitz Roy 49°16′17.02″ S, 73°02′36.80″ W Huemul 49°25′21.59″ S, 73°02′08.57″ W Campana 49°42′42.38″ S, 73°10′56.81″ W Agassiz 49°57′34.19″ S, 73°27′16.71″ W Heim 50°09′49.55″ S, 73°22′12.64″ W Mayo 2380 50°20′35.25″ S, 73°19′16.45″ W Stokes (now Cervantes) 50°34′12.17″ S, 73°08′47.92″ W
Demarcation
[
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] 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.
On 29 August 1990, Presidents Carlos Menem and Patricio Aylwin signed the Santiago Declaration, which instructed the Joint Boundary Commission to accelerate demarcation work and issue a report on pending demarcation issues.
On 12 September 1990, the Joint Commission, through Minute No. 132, defined the 24 points that remained to be demarcated on the border. On 10 and 12 February 1990, the Commission met in Punta Arenas, resolving 22 of the 24 areas not yet demarcated.
In Chile, it was argued that the experts identified in 1898 as intermediate summits between the Fitz Roy and Stokes mounts: Torre, Huemul, Campana, Murallón, Agassiz, Bolados, Peineta, and Mayo. The Stokes of 1898 was considered to be the Cervantes. Giving definitive character to what they saw according to the techniques and knowledge of their time. With a chart of the Military Geographic Institute of 1972 at a scale of 1:50,000, they determined that the line should be drawn from the Fitz Roy by: the Adela range (Torre, Ñato, and Grande hills), Doblado, Huemul, Campana, Murallón, Cono, Agassiz, Bertrand (Oasis), Bolados, Peineta, Mayo, Cervantes, the Piedrabuena range, Cubo, and from there to the Daudet.
In Argentina, it was argued that the demarcation should be made along the highest peaks dividing waters, as agreed in 1881 and with the most modern techniques available to determine it. Taking as a reference six charts of the National Geographic Institute made between 1981 and 1991 at a scale of 1:100,000, they determined that the line should be drawn from Fitz Roy to a point on the Mariano Moreno range, from where the criterion of the highest peaks dividing waters is followed by the following hills: Murallón, East Torino, Roma, Bolados, Onelli Central, a peak of , the Malaspina range, the two hills Inmaculados, Dos Codos range, the Pietrobelli range, a hill of the Piedrabuena range, Cubo, and Stokes.
The Murallón and Bolados hills were the only two points in common of both intended routes.
On 2 August 1991, Presidents Menem and Aylwin signed an agreement to draw a polygonal line to equitably divide the disputed territory from Fitz Roy to Stokes, 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.
The polygonal line was not accepted by the congresses of the two countries. Argentina claimed the loss of of Los Glaciares National Park and Chile claimed the loss of of Bernardo O'Higgins National Park if the line was approved.
In 1994, the Laguna del Desierto incident was solved which involved territory of the Ice Field, an international tribunal awarded almost the whole zone to Argentina. 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.