— President Kast formally endorsed Argentina’s sovereignty over the Falklands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands, and their “surrounding maritime areas” in a joint statement with Milei during his first state visit to Buenos Aires on April 6 — a gesture that triggered an immediate backlash in the Chilean Senate
— Senator Alejandro Kusanovic of Magallanes warned that the phrase “surrounding maritime areas” implicitly validates Argentina’s extended continental shelf claim — which overlaps with Chile’s own Antarctic and sub-Antarctic maritime projection southeast of the 1984 Peace Treaty boundary
— The visit also centered on the extradition of Galvarino Apablaza, a former Chilean guerrilla wanted for the 1991 assassination of Senator Jaime Guzmán — Milei signed the extradition order, but when Interpol raided Apablaza’s Buenos Aires home, he had already fled
The Rio Times, the Latin American financial news outlet, reports that what was designed as the ceremonial launch of a Kast Milei Falklands alliance — and the broader right-wing axis reshaping South America’s southern cone — has instead opened an unexpected domestic front for Chile’s new president. The joint communiqué signed at the Casa Rosada on April 6 contained two words that Chilean maritime experts, Antarctic policy specialists, and opposition senators immediately flagged as a potential concession of Chile’s own territorial interests: “espacios marítimos circundantes” — surrounding maritime areas.
Milei thanked Kast “on behalf of the Argentine government for the traditional support of the Chilean government on the Malvinas Islands Question.” The two presidents spent over 90 minutes in discussions, framing the visit within shared values of “liberty, democracy, life, and property,” while instructing their foreign ministers to advance investment, trade, and integration in mining and energy.
The Kast Milei Falklands Statement and the Maritime Trap
Chile has backed Argentina’s Falklands sovereignty claim as a matter of state policy for more than three decades. What changed is the scope of the endorsement. By including “surrounding maritime areas,” the joint statement implicitly validates the geographic foundation of Argentina’s extended continental shelf submission to the UN — a claim that uses the Falklands, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands as reference points to project seabed rights beyond 200 nautical miles into zones that overlap with Chile’s own projection.
Maritime law expert Richard Kouyoumdjian warned that “the Cancillería is looking at the conflict on the surface — exclusive economic zone and territorial sea — when the real impact is on the subfloor.” Senator Kusanovic, who represents the Magallanes region closest to the disputed zones, said the declaration “puts at risk Chile’s maritime and Antarctic projection.” Chile’s foreign minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna was summoned to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to contain the damage.
The Apablaza Ghost: An Extradition That Found an Empty House
The Falklands endorsement was embedded within a broader bilateral package dominated by the Apablaza case. Galvarino Apablaza, a former guerrilla commander from Chile’s Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, is wanted for masterminding the 1991 assassination of Senator Jaime Guzmán — a foundational figure of Chile’s right-wing constitutional order. Milei signed the extradition order on March 11, the same day he attended Kast’s inauguration in Santiago.
But when Interpol and Argentine judicial authorities raided Apablaza’s home in Moreno, a Buenos Aires suburb, on April 3, he was gone. Kast declared that “sooner or later, the fugitive Apablaza will have to answer before justice” and urged “every Argentine” with information to come forward. Apablaza’s lawyer filed an appeal to the UN Committee Against Torture, arguing his client’s refugee status remains valid.
The Right-Wing Axis and Its Contradictions
The Kast-Milei summit was designed to formalize the conservative alliance that now stretches from Buenos Aires to Santiago — a political axis built on shared hostility to organized crime, irregular immigration, and the legacy of the Latin American left. Both presidents invoked the Battle of Maipú, the 1818 engagement that sealed Chilean and Argentine independence, as a historical template for cooperation.
But the Falklands backlash reveals the structural tension in this alliance: Argentina’s territorial ambitions in the South Atlantic extend into zones where Chilean interests begin. The 1984 Peace and Amistad Treaty resolved the Beagle Channel crisis and drew a maritime boundary, but the continental shelf projections that flow from the Falklands claim push into areas southeast of that treaty line. For Kast, a president whose approval has already crashed to 33% over fuel prices and student protests, the Falklands controversy adds another front to a presidency under siege from multiple directions simultaneously.