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Picton, Lennox and Nueva


Picton, Lennox and Nueva is a group of three islands (and their islets) on the extreme south of South America, in the Chilean commune of Cabo de Hornos in Antartica Chilena Province, Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region. They lie east of Navarino Island and are separated from the Argentine part of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in the north by the Beagle Channel.

Geography

Area:

Lennox: 170 km

Nueva: 120 km

Picton: 105 km

History

Due to their strategic location south of the Beagle Channel and facing the Atlantic Ocean, the islands were also claimed by Argentina, causing a serious border conflict with neighboring Chile. Picton, Lennox and Nueva granted Chile possible claims on part of the Atlantic Ocean, several other islands including the Falkland islands and of a larger part of Antarctica. Also, gold and oil had supposedly been found. The two countries agreed to submit to arbitration by the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II. In May 1977, the queen ruled that the islands and all adjacent formations belonged to Chile. Argentina refused to accept the ruling, and relations between the two countries became extremely tense, moving to the brink of open warfare. In 1979 the two countries agreed — via the Act of Montevideo — to allow Pope John Paul II to mediate the dispute through the good offices of Cardinal Antonio Samore, his special envoy. The pope's ruling resulted in the ratification of a treaty to settle the dispute in Rome in May 1985.

See also

Beagle Channel cartography since 1881

External links

"Act of Montevideo," January 8, 1979 (United Nations) [PDF]

"War Averted," January 22, 1979 (TIME)

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Picton, Lennox and Nueva


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