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• 3 min de lectura
The arrival of an oil tanker flying the United Kingdom flag caused rejection from the authorities of the Government of Tierra del Fuego, in Argentina, who demanded explanations for allowing the vessel's operation. The ship was identified as VS Promise, 228 meters long, 32 meters wide, and built in 2007.
In a statement, the Fuegian administration stated that it "strongly repudiates and rejects the operation of an oil tanker flying the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Port of Ushuaia, currently removed from provincial administration as a consequence of the intervention ordered by the national Government through the National Agency of Ports and Navigation (Anpyn), whose legality has been questioned by the Province before the Justice system."
"It is inadmissible that, while the United Kingdom maintains the illegitimate occupation of an integral part of the territory of Tierra del Fuego —the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, and the corresponding maritime and insular spaces—, a British-flagged vessel operates in the port of the capital of the Province to which these territories belong according to the National Constitution and the Provincial Constitution," indicated the provincial government.
Furthermore, the administration of Tierra del Fuego stated that "Ushuaia constitutes a strategic point of the first order for Argentina: due to its location, its projection over the South Atlantic, and its condition as a gateway to Antarctica, it occupies a central place in the defense of our sovereign interests and in Argentina's presence in the extreme south. Decisions adopted regarding its port cannot disregard this geographical, constitutional, and geopolitical reality."
"The defense of Argentine sovereign rights over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, and the corresponding maritime and insular spaces does not admit double talk or contradictions. It constitutes a permanent and inalienable objective of the Argentine people, enshrined in the First Transitory Provision of the National Constitution, and an essential mandate for all Argentine people in general and for the authorities of Tierra del Fuego according to the Provincial Constitution, in particular," they emphasized.
In this vein, the Provincial Government demanded that the National Government "immediately and publicly report under what political, strategic, and administrative criteria the operation of a vessel flying the flag of the power that illegally occupies part of the provincial territory in the Port of Ushuaia was authorized."
Likewise, the Fuegian administration demanded "the cessation of the intervention and the immediate restitution to the Province of the administration of its port, without prejudice to the legal actions already initiated against a measure that we consider illegitimate and detrimental to provincial autonomy."
"Tierra del Fuego will not remain indifferent to decisions adopted unilaterally from the central power that compromise its competencies, its resources, and Argentina's strategic interests in the South Atlantic. The Province will continue to defend, by all institutional means at its disposal, its competencies and the sovereign rights of the Argentine Republic in the South Atlantic," affirmed the provincial Government.
