The controversy over the boundaries between La Rioja and San Juan has resurfaced in the public agenda after the governor of La Rioja, Ricardo Quintela, reaffirmed the claim over part of northern San Juan, including the Valle de la Luna.
This is a conflict that has remained unresolved for over half a century and now returns with new historical and legal arguments.
Journalist and researcher Juan Pablo Parrilla, after an extensive investigation published in the media outlet Meta o Verso, stated that there are elements supporting La Rioja’s position, although he clarified that the dispute is not closed.
The origins of the conflict
The investigation reconstructed more than a century of failed resolution attempts:
- 1888: both provinces signed an agreement to negotiate and, if unsuccessful, to submit the dispute to the arbitration of President Miguel Juárez Celman. The fall of the president in 1890 left the process unfinished.
- 1911: a new agreement was reached between Patricio Tierney, president of the Superior Court of Justice of San Juan, and the radical leader Pelagio B. Luna, later vice president of Hipólito Yrigoyen. However, the legislatures never ratified it.
- 1968: during the dictatorship of Juan Carlos Onganía, an agreement was signed that substantially modified the boundaries, favoring San Juan.
The Onganía agreement
The 1968 pact consolidated strategic territories for San Juan, including:
- The Ischigualasto Provincial Park (Valle de la Luna).
- Extensive mountainous areas of northern San Juan, where today the four most important mining projects of the province are located.
According to Parrilla, the agreement was “much more detrimental to La Rioja than to San Juan,” as it deviated from the criteria of the 1911 agreement.
Reactions in democracy
With the return to institutional rule, La Rioja formally rejected the agreement:
- The provincial Legislature passed a law rejecting the 1968 pact.
- The circulation of maps based on that agreement was prohibited.
- La Rioja legislators pushed for projects in Congress to nullify the regulation that consolidated the current boundaries.
The claim aims to repeal the so-called Law 18.004, although technically it is an Onganía decree, who referred to his decrees as “laws.”
Political actors involved
Over the decades, various leaders from La Rioja have pushed initiatives to reverse the situation:
- Raúl Galván, a radical leader, presented the first projects during the governorship of Carlos Menem.
- Later, Menem himself and his brother Adrián Menem promoted parliamentary initiatives with the same goal.
An open conflict
The dispute over the Valle de la Luna and northern San Juan remains unresolved. Although there is no consensus on who is right, the journalistic investigation concludes that La Rioja has historical and legal grounds to support its claim.
This conflict, which seemed forgotten, returns to the Argentine political and legal agenda, showing how decisions made in authoritarian contexts continue to generate tensions in democracy.
The reopening of the debate over the boundaries between La Rioja and San Juan reflects the persistence of historical conflicts that span generations.
The case of the Valle de la Luna is emblematic: a territory of great natural and economic value that has become a symbol of dispute and is now being claimed again with new arguments.
