This Sunday, the Tierra del Fuego government loudly announced a formal complaint filed with the Israel Securities and Exchange Commission (ISA) against Navitas Petroleum . The complaint alleges that the oil company misled its investors by downplaying the legal and geopolitical risks of operating the illegal "Sea Lion" project, located 200 kilometers north of the Malvina Islands .

However, behind this announcement lies an undeniable political and institutional abandonment. Because, while the provincial government seeks assistance from foreign regulatory bodies, here in Tierra del Fuego it continues to fail to join the Federal Criminal Case 5183/15 as a plaintiff, a case that has languished in the Federal Court of Río Grande for over a decade.

The accusation in Israel: Strategy or distraction?

According to the Secretariat for Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands and Institutional Affairs ; the complaint alleges that Navitas provided incomplete information on the scope of the Argentine sanctions and the formal rejection by the Foreign Ministry.

Secretary Andrés Dachary stated that "illegality cannot be presented to the markets as an investment opportunity." The province is requesting that Israel investigate whether the company failed to report relevant facts, such as the recent statements made by the President of the Nation on April 2, 2016, announcing diplomatic measures in response to unilateral British activities.

The abandonment of the "Mother Cause" in Rio Grande

Despite the impetus given to the complaint before the Israeli capital market, the political spectrum of Tierra del Fuego seems to agree on one point: the lack of interest in the legal case initiated in 2015. That action, originally promoted by the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner , managed to stop and reverse the oil process through historic embargoes of 156 million dollars and orders to cease activity.

Today, the eight-year-old Malvinas Agenda information line allows us to identify three breaking points:

1.   The absence of a provincial complaint: While the Melella government is suing Navitas in Tel Aviv for "misleading information", it continues to fail to provide evidence or formally present itself as a plaintiff in the local case seeking to imprison the executives and confiscate the assets of the oil companies that violate Argentine laws.

2.   A contradictory action: An Israeli regulatory body is asked to protect international investors from "legal risks," but the realization of those same risks for that and other companies is not being promoted in the courts of Tierra del Fuego .

3.   The silence on Law 26.659: The official announcement focuses on "market transparency", diluting the sovereign and criminal nature of the territorial violation that constitutes the extraction of oil 500 km from the Santa Cruz coast.

The Provincial Government's announcement seems more geared towards a media campaign than a substantive solution. Filing a complaint against Navitas in Israel is an important administrative move, but abandoning Case 5183/15 is a political decision that weakens Argentina's position.