Picton, Lennox and Nueva is a group of islands formed by three uninhabited islands (and their islets) located on the extreme south of South America, in the Chilean region Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena, near Navarino island and the southern coast of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in the Argentine province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and South Atlantic Islands. They hold great oil reserves in their territorial waters.

Due to their strategic location south of the Beagle Channel, the islands were claimed by Argentina, causing a serious border conflict with neighboring Chile. The two countries agreed to submit to arbitration by Britain'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 the pope to mediate the dispute through the good offices of Antonio Cardinal Samoré , his special envoy. The pope's ruling resulted in the ratification of a treaty to settle the dispute in Rome in May 1985.

External links

• "Act of Montevideo," 8 January 1979 (United Nations) [PDF]
• "War Averted," January 22, 1979 (TIME)