Wednesday February 22, 2023 | 5:03 p.m.
President Alberto Fernández visited the Marambio Base within the framework of Argentina’s Antarctic Day, which commemorates the 119th anniversary of our country’s uninterrupted presence on that continent, and stated: “Here, at the end of the world, one can assume the dimension of the Homeland”. The president highlighted in a message on the national chain that “the growth of our Argentina has a projection towards the South and a bicontinental vision and part of the national development depends on the defense of its strategic components.”
Accompanied by the governor of Tierra del Fuego, Gustavo Melella, he assured that the presence of the State in Antarctica “is an act of justice for our history and our identity, coming to this place is recognizing how great we are. Much more than some champions of discouragement want us to believe. The President thanked “scientists, men and women, members of our Armed Forces, workers and workers, each family that has settled here, for the effort, perseverance and patriotism that they show” and for marking “the continuity of 119 years of permanent and uninterrupted presence of Argentina in the Antarctic continent”.
The president recalled that “the First Scientific Expedition to the Argentine Continental Antarctic aimed at creating a permanent base departed on February 12, 1951 from the Port of Buenos Aires. That day the then president Juan Domingo Perón together with Eva Duarte fired the expedition members who were going to create the Antarctic Institute.
“Science is sovereignty, because there is no possible development without scientific-technological production, and Antarctica is a scientific research center of great importance for humanity and for our country,” said President Alberto Fernández. The president added that “touring the scientific stations located in Antarctica, observing the technology that they have deployed, seeing the activities that take place here every day, we can only think about the future.”
The Head of State recalled that in 2020 “we approved the Maritime Spaces Law” by which “our maps today show the Antarctic sector in its real proportion, suddenly turning Tierra del Fuego into the geographic center of our Homeland”, and He said: “Argentina is a huge country due to its territory and its people. The millions of square kilometers on our map would be useless without us inhabiting them as an organized community”.
Likewise, the President pointed out that “in the years of the dictatorship, we believed that a strong democracy was only a utopia that wandered among our dreams” and “this year, as Argentines celebrate forty years of uninterrupted democracy” it is “time to consider another utopia: the utopia of equality”.
“I am inviting you to promote territorial equality throughout the country. I invite you to give strength to our forgotten north, to strengthen our productive center, to deploy the energy that our south preserves, and to think of Antarctica, the southern islands and the immense sea that surrounds it as a source of wealth that exists but that It is still unexplored,” he added.
During his speech, he also indicated that “since 2014, Argentina has been proud to carry out the Pampa Azul program, a comprehensive research project and in which during this government we have invested more than 1,000 million pesos.”
Within this framework, as part of the actions “to strengthen our sovereign interests in Antarctica”, the National Government created “the Oceanographic Observatory on board the icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar” and within the framework of the “Build Science Program, the installation is being finalized of new Multidisciplinary Antarctic Laboratories”.
“We are going to maintain the existing laboratories and promote the creation of more multidisciplinary Antarctic laboratories. We are going to preserve the 13 bases and guarantee the continuity of the summer campaigns, ”she emphasized. On the other hand, he explained that the National Government is “working on the renovation of the Petrel Base that burned down in 1979, which will be a sustainable station supported by alternative energies, suitable for landing logistics and a port.”
“It is time to cross science with culture and that is why we created a headquarters of the National Library. The ‘Culture is Sovereignty’ cycle brings our art to Antarctica. And we are also going to create a traveling Antarctic correspondent for the Télam Agency because Argentina cares about knowing the news from our Antarctica”, he indicated.
“None of this would be possible without the fundamental action of the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Antarctic Command for the transport of personnel and logistical support in the Antarctic bases. Only in this way is it possible to develop the scientific, service and environmental management tasks of the Annual Antarctic Plan”, he remarked.
The president recalled that “last year we commemorated 40 years of the Malvinas war and it was very moving to hear millions of Argentines remember our fighters during the World Cup festivities.” “Malvinas is a national cause, because the South Atlantic and, without a doubt, our Antarctic territory are a vital enclave of our territorial and political sovereignty,” he added. In turn, he reaffirmed “Argentina’s commitment to the conservation of the Antarctic ecosystem” and noted that “we have presented together with the sister Republic of Chile the establishment of a marine protected area in the area of the Antarctic Peninsula.”
“Our country has a leading role, which is the result of hard diplomatic, scientific and logistical work. We have been honored with the establishment of the headquarters of the Executive Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty since 2004. It was and is, indisputably, an international recognition that Argentina is committed to the basic principles of peacekeeping, international scientific cooperation and protection of the environment, for our well-being and that of future generations”, he emphasized.
“And we are doing these tasks, the Argentina of daily work, the Argentina that travels towards a future of freedom. Argentina wakes up, Argentina is on the move. Argentina is seen by the world as the symbol of everything we can achieve together. That’s why from the end of the world, I come to talk to you about new beginnings, about principles. A tomorrow of peace and prosperity begins. United, we are making it possible”, concluded the head of state.
The trip of the Head of State, which takes place during the 2022/23 Antarctic Summer Campaign, is the fourth time that an Argentine president has gone to Antarctica and marks the return of a first president after 25 years. It is part of the activities for Argentine Antarctic Day, which commemorates the inauguration on February 22, 1904 of the Meteorological Observatory on Laurie Island, South Orcadas, which would later become the Orcadas Base, a historical landmark. that marked the beginning of the uninterrupted permanence during 119 years in that continent.
This shows that the strengthening of the Antarctic presence is a State policy that seeks to safeguard the sovereignty and interests of our country in that continent, by supporting the development of scientific activity, the consolidation of international cooperation and the preservation of the environment. atmosphere.
