Chilean Antarctic Geopolitics

Stamp is Scott Chile #248

Chile, the land of “crazy geography” has a strong tradition of geopolitical thinking, especially naval, which has emphasized the need to strengthen Chilean sovereignty in its claimed Antarctic sector as well as a number of islands. This strong current of geopolitical thinking was especially nurtured during the long reign of President/General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). Pinochet himself visited Chilean stations in Antarctica twice, and he is an excellent example of geopolitician as ruler (albeit non-democratic) whose foreign and domestic policies were strongly influenced by his geopolitical ideas. Geopolitics analyses politics, history and social science with reference to geography. ... General Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte1 (born November 25, 1915) was head of the military government that ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990. ...

Chile's Antarctic claim relies on a number of factors, including propinquity (proximity), geological continuity, rescue operations, presence, administrative acts, inheritance from Spain, and even 16th century poetry ("La Araucana" by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga).

The stamp, Scott Chile #310, quotes the epic poem "La Araucana": Chile, fertile and well-known province, in the famous antarctic region.

Chile perceives itself as the “southernmost country in the world” (Terra Australis), with the most Austral city on earth. As such, Chile is the geopolitical “guardian of the doorway” dominating the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, Cape Horn and the Drake Passage. These are the only ice-free routes in the world between Atlantic and Pacific (leaving out the Panama Canal and the icy, treacherous Canadian/US Northwest Passage), and this is important, argue the Chileans, because world economic and political power is shifting from Europe/US to the Pacific rim, and Chile is a Pacific nation which sits on top of the only naval routes between Atlantic and Pacific. The Strait of Magellan, near Punta Arenas The Strait of Magellan is a navigable route immediately south of mainland South America. ... Sea lions on La Isla de Los Lobos in the Beagle Channel Glacier on the north shore of the Beagle Channel Beagle Channel is a strait separating islands of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, in extreme southern South America. ... Cape Horn from the South, January 2003 Cape Horn is often said to be the southernmost point of South America. ... Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica. ...

This notion is linked to the geopolitical idea, much like Argentina’s, of Chile as a Tri-continental nation, with sovereignty on mainland South America, Pacific Islands (Easter and Juan Fernandez Islands) and its Antarctic claim, leading Chilean authorities to stress the national “Antarctic consciousness” much like that of its historic, and Antarctic, rival: Argentina.

But the geopolitical relationship with Argentina, sometimes strained by border and diplomatic disputes, also has cooperative strains as well as conflictual ones. Among these are a 1948 agreement to mutually recognize and support their two Antarctic claims (although the border between Argentine and Chilean Antarctica has never been specified). More recently, there has been talk of a joint Argentina-Chilean overland expedition to the South Pole, where probably much to their annoyance, they will find a major U.S. Polar station.

Chile’s southerly location has made Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams important “last landfall” points for Antarctic expeditions as well as rescue efforts. Shackleton’s was the most noteworthy of these efforts, which also included the medical emergency evacuation of two different U.S doctors from the South Pole station in 1999 and 2001. These two Chilean locations also play a key role as one of four gateway cites for Antarctic tourism in the Peninsula (the other two being Argentina’s Ushuaia and the Falkland Islands). Typically aircraft bring tourists to the southerly locations, where they board expedition cruise ships heading south to Antarctica. City of Punta Arenas Punta Arenas is the main city in the Strait of Magellan and the capital of the Región de Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena, Chile. ... Puerto Williams in Tierra del Fuego Puerto Williams is a small Chilean port, located on Isla Navarino facing the Beagle Channel. ... Ernest Henry Shackleton The Discovery During the Discovery expedition, Shackleton made the first balloon flight over Antarctica Four men from Nimrod (left to right): Frank Wild, Shackleton, Eric Marshall, and Jameson Adams Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (February 15, 1874 – January 5, 1922) was an Irish-born explorer, now chiefly remembered... The city of Ushuaia in early spring. ...

Another geopolitical factor is Chile’s claim to have established the first “Antarctic City” at Villa Las Estrellas next to the Teniente Marsh base on King George Island. This “city” includes a few families with children, a small shopping center, a bank, a post office, a souvenir store, and a hotel. The base also boasts the only runway in this area useable by aircraft as large as the C-130 transport planes of the Chilean Air Force, which have a steady stream of missions involving resupply cargo, and transportation for scientists, staff, military officers and tourists. King George Island or ÃŽle du Roi Georges or Isla 25 de Mayo or Isla Rey Jorge or Isla Veinticinco de Mayo or King Georges Island or König Georg Insel or Waterloo Island is the largest of the South Shetland Islands, situated at 62°23′ S 58°67...

References: Jack Child, Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum. New York: Praeger, 1988, Chapter 4.

Dodds, Klaus. Geopolitics in Antarctica: views from the Southern Oceanic Rim. Chichester ; New York : Published in association with Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge by J. Wiley, 1997.

Mericq, General Luis S. (Chile). Antárctica: Chile's Claim. Washington: National Defense University, 1986.

Moneta, Carlos J., ed. La Antártida en el Sistema Internacional del Futuro. Buenos Aires: Grupo Editor Lationoamericano, 1988.

Quadri, Ricardo P. La Antártida en la Política Internacional. Buenos Aires: Pleamar, 1986.

Santis, H, Las Fronteras Antárticas de Chile. Santiago: Universidad de Chile, Sept 1986.

Stamp #672 shows "Villa las Estrellas"