Falklands Dispute Spills Into Chilean Congress Over Strait of Magellan
CHILE · POLITICS
Key Facts
- —The comparison Deputy Javier Olivares Avendaño (People’s Party) told the Chamber’s National Defense Committee on Tuesday: “Just as the Falklands are English, the Strait of Magellan is Chilean.”
- —The ambassador Chile’s ambassador in Buenos Aires, Gonzalo Uriarte, told a Rotary Club audience: “If we Chileans understand that for Argentina the Malvinas are important, let us make it our own.”
- —The demand Deputy Jaime Mulet (FREVS) called that “flatly wrong” and asked Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna to summon Uriarte to account for his words.
- —The vote The Chamber of Deputies voted 57 to 49 to summon Pérez Mackenna on September 28 — the first Kast cabinet minister called before Congress.
- —The backdrop Since August 23, Argentine military and political figures have repeatedly described the Strait of Magellan as shared or strategic for Argentina, despite treaties of 1881 and 1984.
- —The escalation Argentina has sanctioned 45 companies over Falklands oil activity and opened criminal complaints; President Javier Milei suspended his planned London trip.
The Falklands dispute between Argentina and Britain has crossed the Andes: a Chilean deputy now invokes Magallanes to argue the islands are British, while another wants Chile’s own ambassador in Buenos Aires hauled in to explain why he adopted Argentina’s cause.
Chile’s Congress spent the week discovering that the Falklands question is no longer someone else’s argument. On Friday, deputy Jaime Mulet, of the regionalist party FREVS, demanded that Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna call home Chile’s ambassador to Argentina, Gonzalo Uriarte, to explain a sentence delivered at the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires: that if Chileans understand how important the Malvinas are to Argentina, they should make that cause their own.
Three days earlier, in the National Defense Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, another lawmaker had gone further in the opposite direction. Javier Olivares Avendaño, of the People’s Party (Partido de la Gente, PDG) — a right-of-center party founded in 2019 that is not part of President José Antonio Kast’s government — put the two sovereignty questions side by side: “That is, just as the Falklands are English, the Strait of Magellan is Chilean.”
The sentence cuts against Chile’s official line. Santiago formally backs Argentina’s claim to the islands — the Malvinas, as they are known in Spanish — and Kast reiterated that support on September 3. Olivares, who chairs the committee overseeing the state intelligence system, was making a blunter point: if sovereignty is settled by treaties and by the wishes of the people who live on the territory, then the cases rhyme. In the 2013 referendum in the islands, 99.8% of voters chose to remain a British overseas territory.
What the Ambassador Said in Buenos Aires
Uriarte, who has held the post since April, made his remarks during a presentation at the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires, where he reaffirmed the support that President Kast had expressed for Argentina’s claim over the Malvinas. “If we Chileans understand that for Argentina the Malvinas are important, let us make it our own,” he said, according to Chilean media reports of the event.
The ambassador framed the idea as reciprocity: Chile expects Argentina to respect Chilean sovereignty over the Strait of Magellan, which lies entirely within Chilean territory, so Chileans should in turn embrace the importance of the Malvinas to Argentina. That framing landed in the middle of three weeks of Argentine statements — from military commanders, ministers and senators in the orbit of President Javier Milei — suggesting that the strait is shared, or an area of Argentine strategic interest.
Mulet’s Demand: “Call Him to Account”
Mulet’s reply, given to reporters on Thursday and amplified across Chilean media on Friday, was unsparing. “Ambassador Uriarte is flatly wrong when he says that if we Chileans understand that the Malvinas are important for Argentina, we should make that cause our own,” he said.
“It means not understanding Chile’s condition in the south of the South American continent,” Mulet went on. “It means not understanding that Argentine authorities, repeatedly, and now once again, make statements contrary to Chile’s permanent interests in the southern zone — not only because of the Strait of Magellan and Decree 457.”
The reference is to Argentine decree 457/2021, whose text speaks of joint control of the strait. Buenos Aires has acknowledged the formulation is erroneous — but has not repealed it. Mulet warned that each new controversy should not be treated as an isolated episode: “This revives every time Argentina wants to raise the issue, and in the end it amounts to building pieces of evidence for future arbitrations or trials.”
“To say that the Malvinas are Chile’s own cause — no,” he said. “It is an Argentine cause, and Argentina has a problem with England that they will have to resolve peacefully between themselves. One may show solidarity, but Argentina has to be very clear about the Strait of Magellan, the repeal of Decree 457 — and the truth is that even that is not enough. What is missing here is more clarity and more firmness.” He concluded with a direct demand on the foreign ministry: “I believe the foreign minister should call Ambassador Uriarte to account, find out what is going on, and personally establish his position on a situation that seems to me very grave.”
Three Weeks of Friction Over the Strait
The bilateral controversy opened on August 23, when Brigadier General Gustavo Javier Valverde, chief of the general staff of Argentina’s air force, referred on a streaming program to Magallanes, the far south and the Drake Passage as areas of sovereignty, describing the zone as a bi-oceanic key. Chile sent a protest note, and Pérez Mackenna called Chilean sovereignty over the strait indisputable, grounded in the boundary treaty of 1881 and the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984.
Tensions first eased after a call from Argentine Defense Minister Carlos Presti to his Chilean counterpart, Fernando Barros Tocornal. According to Chile’s defense ministry, Presti attributed Valverde’s comments to confusion and said the officer knows the treaties in force.
On September 3, Presidents Kast and Milei signed a joint declaration in Santiago stating that the legal regime of the strait is the one established by those two treaties — fully in force and definitive. Chilean media noted it was the first time Argentina had recognized Chilean sovereignty over the entire strait in an official document. At the same meeting, Kast reiterated Chile’s support for Argentina’s sovereign rights over the South Atlantic islands and urged the United Kingdom to resume negotiations.
The calm lasted hours. Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno then described his country as bi-oceanic while discussing the naval base planned in Tierra del Fuego, and Senator Patricia Bullrich listed control of the strait among Argentina’s strategic objectives. Bullrich later sent a letter attributing her comments to confusion with the Beagle Channel, acknowledging that the strait belongs entirely to Chile and asking that her apologies be conveyed to Kast.
Congress Steps In
That second round mobilized Chile’s opposition. On Tuesday — the same day Olivares made his Falklands comparison — the Chamber of Deputies voted 57 to 49, with one abstention, to summon Pérez Mackenna. He will appear on September 28, the first minister of Kast’s cabinet to be called before Congress, with a questionnaire covering thirteen subjects, including the continued force of decree 457/2021.
Olivares’s remark adds a sharper ideological edge. Chile’s diplomatic tradition, shared across most of its political spectrum, couples support for Argentina’s Malvinas claim with an absolute insistence on Chilean sovereignty in Magallanes. Equating the two — British sovereignty in the islands, Chilean sovereignty in the strait — converts the government’s solidarity with Buenos Aires into a debating liability at home.
The Falklands Escalation Behind It All
The Chilean quarrel is a side current of a much larger confrontation. Argentina has in recent weeks sanctioned 45 companies and their directors over oil activity near the islands, expanded the pressure with criminal complaints and a money-laundering case, and watched Britain answer that it will be “relentless” in defending the islanders’ choice. On Friday, The Rio Times reported that Milei had suspended a planned trip to London as the confrontation deepened.
What It Means for Foreigners in Chile
For expatriates and investors, nothing practical changes this week: the strait remains Chilean, shipping through Punta Arenas runs normally, and the Kast–Milei declaration of September 3 still stands. But the dispute now has a parliamentary calendar. Watch September 28, when Pérez Mackenna faces Congress, and watch whether the foreign ministry acts on Mulet’s demand regarding Uriarte — the first personnel test of how Santiago manages an alliance with Milei’s Argentina that is popular in the presidential palace and increasingly contested everywhere else.
For Chile, the stakes are legal as much as political. Mulet’s warning about “pieces of evidence for future arbitrations” reflects a real doctrine: repeated acquiescence can weigh in international proceedings. That is why a Rotary Club speech in Buenos Aires and a committee session in Valparaíso now matter well beyond Chile’s far south.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
Read More from The Rio Times