The formal complaint that the Argentine Foreign Ministry filed with the British Embassy—which Foreign Minister Quirno attempted to suppress amid the euphoria of the football victory against England—contains an extremely serious technical breakdown. The official document precisely confirms what we anticipated on this website: the patrol vessel HMS Medway violated the bilateral rules governing military security in the South Atlantic since the post-war period.

To understand the magnitude of the British offense, it is necessary to dismantle the legal framework that London unilaterally violated in our sovereign waters.

The basis of mutual control: Madrid II and its four annexes

The post-war security framework was consolidated on February 15, 1990, with the signing of the Treaty of Madrid II . To prevent the armed forces of both countries from clashing again due to "miscalculations," the "Transitional System of Reciprocal Information and Consultation" was created, structured in four fundamental annexes:

The specific violation: The 15-mile limit (1993 Reform)

The original 1990 protocol required the parties to give 48 hours' notice when a warship approached within 50 miles of the continental coast. However, in order to expedite transit in the southern region, this geographical framework was modified by mutual agreement through subsequent declarations:

1.    The Joint Declaration of 25 September 1991: Directly replaced Annexes I, II, III and IV of the Madrid Treaty II.

2.    The Joint Declaration of July 12, 1993 (Buenos Aires and London): It finished shaping the text that governs today.

It is precisely in section I.2 ("Confidence-building measures"), point "b" of this consolidated text, where the British violation occurred. The rule states with absolute clarity that:

By ordering the HMS Medway to transit through the territorial sea adjacent to Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego on its route to the Strait of Magellan without issuing any warning, the Royal Navy ignored the 15-mile safety zone and operated without the required mutual agreement.

Contempt for the United Nations

The protest filed by the Foreign Ministry details that this unauthorized military incursion also violates United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/49 . This international law expressly prohibits the United Kingdom from unilaterally altering the status of the Malvina Islands while the sovereignty dispute remains unresolved. Moving warships out of the usurped territory to freely patrol the Argentine continental shelf is, above all, a unilateral alteration of the status quo.

The official statement from the Foreign Ministry presents evidence of a direct attack on the post-war peace architecture. Great Britain did not commit a mere diplomatic indiscretion; it violated the Madrid II Treaty to demonstrate that it can navigate our territorial waters whenever it pleases, without asking permission and without giving explanations.

While the national government speculated on the timing of football matches so as not to hinder the agenda of diplomatic submission to London, the international treaties signed with the blood of our fallen were unilaterally trampled in the waters of the south.