Operación 90

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Operación 90 (Operation NINETY) was the first Argentine ground expedition to the South Pole, conducted in 1965, by 10 soldiers of the Argentine Army under then-Colonel Jorge E. Leal. It was performed to cement Argentina's claims to a portion of Antarctica, as well as for scientific reasons and to perfect polar exploration techniques.

The operation was named for the target 90 degree South latitude point (the South Pole). They performed the operation in secret so as not to upset the superpowers of the time, the United States and Soviet Union, who tended to ignore the fact that other countries were operating in the South Pole. The operation had no real purpose except to exercise the right of Argentina, and by extension South America, to the continuation of its landmass which had been proclaimed as a South American entitlement by Pope Alexander VI.

The only interesting occurrence of the operation, according to General Jorge E. Leal, was that the group encountered a radar operator from the United States who asked them who they were and what they were doing there. The group, after Leal explained that they were not Soviets, was invited to eat at the American sub-snow base -- the first good food, said Leal, that the group had had in some weeks.