SEABOURN and P&O Cruises UK have
become the latest cruise lines caught up in the
Falkland Islands dispute between Argentina
and Great Britain.
This year makes the 30th anniversary of the
Falkland Islands conflict between the two
world powers over sovereignty of the territory,
which raged for 74 days and resulted in
Argentina’s surrender.
The Falklands have been under British
control since 1765, however Argentina claimed
sovereignty over the islands in 1820, and has
pressed its case since then, eventually leading
to the 1982 conflict.
This anniversary year has seen several incidents
involving cruise ships and Argentinean ports,
with both Star Princess and Adonia being
rejected entry to the port of Ushuaia because
both ships had visited the Falklands, whilst this
month AIDAcara cancelled its planned Falklands
stop following protests in Buenos Aires.
HAL’s Veendam also scrapped a call in
Ushuaia this month.
The latest incident however involved Seabourn
Sojourn, which ran into problems this month
whilst docked in the port in Buenos Aires, after
workers from the United Maritime Workers
Union (SOMU) prevented her departure.
Sojourn was due to set sail on 04 December
from Buenos Aires on a 15-day cruise of
Patagonia to Valparaiso in Chile, when workers
stopped the ship from departing, demanding
that the Captain agree to scrap the ship’s
scheduled call in the Falklands.
According to British media reports, a
statement from Tony Lopez of the Malvinas
Resistance group (which was supporting the
SOMU in its action) said that Sojourn was a
“pirate ship” which if it visited the Falklands
would be “violating the Gaucho Rivero law,
designed to stop British ships from ‘plundering’
Argentine resources”.
Lopez added that Sojourn would not be
allowed to leave until there was confirmation
that it would not sail to the Falklands for its
scheduled eight-hour call at the Island’s
capital, Port Stanley.
Seabourn however played down the controversy
saying the delay was “due to the temporary
unavailability of a required tugboat escort.”
The company also confirmed that the ship
departed eight hours later than expected and
resumed its schedule calling at Montevideo
and the Falklands.
“Seabourn has operated scheduled cruises
between Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and the
Falkland Islands for a number of years in full
compliance with Argentine laws, and intends to
continue to do so according to our published
schedules, dependent upon local weather and
sea conditions,” the company said in a statement.
Meanwhile P&O UK has announced that it will
scrap both Arcadia and Adonia’s planned 2013
World Cruise stops in Argentina, due to the
problems with port calls to the country.
“As a British cruise company we cannot allow
ourselves to be the subject of any political
dispute or put our customers and crew into any
situation where their enjoyment may be
compromised,” said P&O Cruises UK.
“With this in mind, we have had to take the
difficult decision to remove all Argentinean
ports of call from Arcadia and Adonia’s 2013
itineraries,” the cruise line added.
