
Argentina has banned two cruise ships from calling at Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego after they visited the Falkland Islands, apparently based on recent provincial legislation, according to reports in the Ushuaia media.

Argentine lawmakers from the entire political arch stamped on Saturday their support to the so called “Ushuaia declaration” claiming sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands and calling for dialogue with the UK to overcome the ongoing dispute.

Argentine members of the opposition have warned that they will not attend a Friday special session of the Senate and Lower House Foreign Affairs committees to be held in Tierra del Fuego and dedicated to the Malvinas issue unless the overall position of the diplomatic conflict is openly debated.

The Argentine congress will be holding an extraordinary session next 24 February in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego to debate on the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. Under the 1994 Argentine constitution, the Falklands come under the jurisdiction of the province of Tierra del Fuego.

A Malvinas war veteran drowned in an attempt to reach the Falkland Islands in a kayak from Ushuaia while his companion was rescued by an Argentine Navy patrol and is in hospital in a state of chock, reported the Buenos Aires press in the last day of 2011.

Argentina’s extreme south city and Antarctica cruise hub, Ushuaia is feeling the pinch from the latest Chilean measures to attract more vessels and is requesting a costs adjustment to improve competition conditions.

Argentina’s government is opening a new path to Tierra del Fuego that will give travellers, who once had to pass through Chile to reach the southernmost tip of the continent, the option of skipping Chile altogether.

It has been a tough and discouraging tourist season this summer for Punta Arenas and its area of influence according to local operators and the hotel industry.

A yacht flying the Argentine flag and on route to Mar del Plata from Ushuaia called in the Falkland Islands last Friday.
The ‘Shaman’ yacht arrived in Stanley from Tierra del Fuego on a short visit with a crew of two: the owner who is also the captain and his partner.

Argentina in this 2010/11 campaign has been supplying Antarctic bases and stations with support from a Russian polar vessel equipped with an icebreaking bow and its own Navy units.