Antarctica - Argentinean Claim

Argentina has also made a claim for territory in Antarctica and like Chile has incorporated territory outside the region. The claim known as Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur includes Tierra del Fuego (on mainland South America), the Argentine claim to the Antarctic continent and the Argentine claim to the Falkland Islands, the South Georgia Islands and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Malvinas, Islas Georgias del Sur, Islas Sandwich del Sur). It is known that Argentina, in order to add strength to it’s claim over the British territories of Falklands Islands and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and also to it’s Antarctic claim (25°W to 74°W, overlapping the British and Chilean claims), joined all these territories to it’s (undisputed) mainland province of “Fireland”.

In June 1999 a celebrated contest about new flag of the province of Tierra del Fuego was held. The winning flag was designed by Teresa Beatriz Martínez, an architect from Entre Ríos. The design is called “the Albatross“. The orange part, fire colour, stands for the geography of the larger island. The blue colour stands for the sky and the sea surrounding this province and bonds it to the national flag; the stars of the Southern Cross, which guided so many travellers to these regions, also symbolize the southern location of the islands and other territorial elements that make up the province. The Albatross is a local bird and its flight symbolizes freedom.