On The Reality and Unreality of Political Boundaries: Border Disputes between Argentina and Chile

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On The Reality and Unreality of Political Boundaries: Border Disputes between Argentina and Chile

I waited for four hours to cross the border between Argentina and Chile in Tierra del Fuego. An Irishman on the bus travelling all through central and south America - from Mexico to Ushuaia - informed me that this was the worst crossing point on the whole continent.

After so many years of the European Union and its open border policy between member states, the whole concept of passport controls, customs checks and luggage scans at a land border seem an unfamiliar idea. And could it not also be argued that all borders are legal and political fictions bearing no relation to geographical reality.

If they are fictions, they are taken extremely seriously by both Chile and Argentina. Maybe the because they are fictions they need other more tangible means to confirm their existence. One of the first sights to greet the visitor to Tierra del Fuego when arriving on the ferry is a large field of land mines. A lasting reminder of a conflict in the 1970s which almost saw the countries go to war over three islands in the Beagle Channel.

These disputed islands, Picton, Lennox and Nuevo, have a combined area of 400 square kilometres - roughly equivalent to the area of Greater London. The population of the islands is nil. There is no farming there. And there are no significant natural resources. And yet open warfare and the invasion of mainland Chile by the Argentine army was only avoided by a personal plea from the Pope and arbitration by the English monarch.

Some twenty years later, when the military rule in both countries had been brought to an end, the absurdity of the situation could be seen in its true light. A film was made satirising the conflict, produced jointly in a collaborative effort between Chilean and Argentine film studios. Called My Best Enemy, it tells the story of a Chilean patrol that was sent to Patagonia to defend the border against Argentine attack. The patrol becomes thoroughly lost in the immense wilderness and can find no border to defend. They decide to dig a trench where they stand, and discover that they have placed it right next to an Argentine one, occupied by soldiers who are similarly lost.

The irony of the situation is apparent, for no real border exists. The two groups of men become friends, playing football and eating barbecues together.

The cause of the geographical confict is in many ways historic, and a consequence of the ways in which the two countries developed. Chile was explored from the north downwards, via expeditions and armies of conquest sent south from Bolivia and Peru. Argentina grew by expansion westwards from the capital Buenos Aires on the east coast. The disputed lands of Patagonia fell awkwardly in the middle. Conflict over the territory carried on sporadically from the time that the two countries achieved independence from Spain (Argentina 1816, and Chile 1818).

In 1881, it appeared that the situation would finally be resolved. Chile was fighting land and sea battles against Peru and Bolivia. Desperate to avoid Argentina siding with its enemies in the war, Chile agreed to divide Patagonia on terms entirely acceptable to Argentina. This resulted in the logical and easily definable position that land to the east of the Andes belonged to Argentina and land to the west would be Chilean territory.

While this left the slightly anomalous position that Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of the continent was divided with Chile gaining most of the land, but Argentina having most of the population, it was hoped that this would end all further argument and the threat of warfare to settle the issue.

But specific poins along the border soon became localised areas of contention. While the situation in the nothern Andes was fairly clear cut, the division of the Patagonian lakes became a more difficult subject to resolve.

The terms of the 1881 treaty implied that anything on the Pacific side of the Andes was Chilean. There were, however, several large Patagonia lakes which lay on the Atlantic side of the Andes, but whose drainage basin flowed westwards into the Pacific. Chile claimed that these lakes should be theirs on the basis of the location of the drainage basin. Argentine geologists claimed that the lakes had originally drained into the Atlantic, but that very recent glaciation effects had blocked these historical drainage pathways, and this was the only reason the lakes now flowed into Chile.

The arguments may seem stretched on both sides, but it was not until 1902 when the matter was sent to the UK for arbitration that the question of the troubleome lakes was clarified. The UK ignored all technical and geological arguments, and merely divided the lakes in half, apportioning them equally to both countries.

In the 1970s, the dispute over the three islands arose on the basis that they were located on the eastern or Atlantic side of the Beagle Channel and currently recognised as Chilean. But previous treaties had clearly indicated that all territory associated with the Atlantic should belong to Argentina. Troops were sent to the Patagonian borders to defend current frontiers, and Argentina made preparations for a land invasion of Chile. It was during this period that the mine fields were laid.

At the intervention of the Pope, both countries once again agreed to have the matter settled by UK arbitration. This time the dispute was settled wholly in favour of the Chileans. The resulting souring of relations between Argentina and the UK was one of the factors in the consequent war over Las Malvinas.

This was all something to consider while sitting at the current border crossing. The bus was parked in a laybay next to the customs office and there we waited for about an hour. Someone then came to collect passports and took them away in a cardboard box to have the entry stamps put in. After a further hour they were returned. This did not mean that it was time to move through the border. Now all the bags were loaded off the bus and fifty or sixty people stood in line to have them sent through an airport type scanner before being take back on.

One of the coaches from Ushuaia was travelling to Rio Gallegos. Although both cities are in Argentina, the only way to travel between them is through Chilean territory. As a result, passengers on these buses must endure the while border process twice on the same journey - which could add between six to eight hours onto an already lengthy trip.

I was unable to determine any specific reason for the immensely time consuming nature of this process. Some said that things were always this way. Others said that the customs people had some industrial grievance and were deliberatley on a go slow policy. If the latter argument was true, it seemed directed only against overseas travellers on large coaches; for cars, trucks and vans were waved through almost immediately after only the most cursory of checks.

The disputes over the borders have largely remained dormant since civilian rule returned to Chile and Argentina. Despite the military presence at the frontier, any further conflict seems unlikely. But squabbling over the boundaries continues in small ways. Ushuaia, in Argentina, claims to be the most southern town in the world. Across the Beagle Channel to the south in Chile, lies the island of Navarino, with its several hundred inhabitants in Puerto Williams. This does not concern the Ushuaians, who confidently assert that Puerto Williams is a military base and not a town, and therefore not a rival to their status as the most southerly town.

This is a situation that both sides seem willing to accept. And the same seems to be true of most of the remaining boundaries between the two countries. While Google Maps may in some places refuse to show a border for fear of making a political statement on behalf of one nation or the other, any conflicts are certainly not hot ones.

Perhaps there is also the feeling that if the queries were resolved there would be nothing left to fight about, and an important sense of identity on both sides would be lost. Perhaps this is also the real reason why the customs officials in Tierra del Fuego defend their authority with such lengthy and bureaucratic rigour.

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