The Presidency of Argentina announced this Wednesday the filing of new criminal complaints against companies that would be carrying out hydrocarbon activities in the Falklands, a territory administered by the United Kingdom since 1833 and whose sovereignty is claimed by Argentina.
“The President’s Office reports that new criminal complaints will be filed against companies that would be developing hydrocarbon activities on the Argentine continental shelf, in violation of the prohibitions established by Law No. 26,659,” the Casa Rosada said in a statement.
These add to the legal actions initiated last Tuesday by the Argentine government before federal courts against the Israeli oil company Navitas and four other companies, which it accuses of operating in the waters of the Falkland Islands.
The new complaints, the text from Javier Milei’s administration adds, will reach not only “new companies involved” in such actions but will also “identify directors, managers, administrators, representatives, and other persons who have been involved in decisions related to these activities”.
This implies that preexisting legal proceedings could be expanded, as well as new ones opened.
Likewise, the trans-Andean Executive stated that it will continue advancing in the implementation of actions that “allow holding accountable” “all those who are found to be violating” Argentina’s “national sovereignty”, actions that, it has emphasized, will not be limited to legal entities but will also reach those who, from their positions and functions, “have intervened in the commission of these offenses.”
“The national government will continue to use all means at its disposal to prevent companies or individuals from carrying out activities that violate the sovereign rights of the Argentine Republic and to sanction those responsible,” the government statement pointed out.
Hours earlier, the same Argentine presidential office announced the initiation of processes to sanction 15 additional people for their oil activities in the Falkland Islands. Therefore, this process adds to those already initiated against another 45 individuals and legal entities “involved in the illegitimate development of hydrocarbon activities” in the Falklands.
“This progress is a new step in the same direction,” the presidential text then emphasized, amid the escalation of the clash between Buenos Aires and London over the claim to the archipelago located in the South Atlantic, whose dispute led to a ten-week war in 1982.
It is worth recalling that last Thursday Milei, in a televised message addressed to the nation, announced a decree to accelerate the tightening of sanctions against those participating in oil extraction initiatives in the Falkland Islands “without authorization” from Buenos Aires. At the same time, he advanced the construction of an integrated naval base in the province of Tierra del Fuego, located at the southern tip of South America, and the increase of its telecommunications capabilities.
The issue of sovereignty over the Falklands has worsened especially in recent days, after the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in response to media questions made a brief reference to the topic, in which he pointed to the possibility of reviewing Washington’s position on support for the United Kingdom regarding sovereignty over the disputed archipelago.
This week, the U.S. Ambassador to Chile, Brandon Judd, spoke about these statements, arguing in an interview with CNN that “a review is not a change of stance.”
“Everyone reviews policies, all presidents. It doesn’t matter if it’s the president of Chile, the United States, or the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Everyone reviews policies and examines policy statements to see if today’s world is still the same as when that agreement was signed,” the diplomat emphasized, stressing that Trump “never said he changed the policy” nor “ever said he was going to change it”.
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