A woman will lead the Uruguayan scientific base in Antarctica for the first time
“You can fulfill any role that men perform,” Lieutenant Colonel Petra da Costa told her peers.
For the first time in Uruguayan history, a woman will command the scientific base in Antarctica, the Presidency reported. Lieutenant Colonel Petra da Costa, who said she was proud to have been appointed chief, will then be the one to lead and provide support to the scientists at the South Pole for a year.
At a press conference, da Costa assured her female peers that “any role that men play can be fulfilled.” “It is simply reaching the objectives, fulfilling the activities assigned to us,” he expressed.
The lieutenant colonel said that this is the fifth military mission in which she has participated. Before, he traveled four times to the Congo, in Africa. “I’m already used to it, we’ll see how the cold takes us,” she said.
Da Costa said he made the decision to travel to Antarctica in 2024, when he found out that the position was open. First, she discussed the possibility with herself, then she told her parents that, once again, she was going on a mission.
For his part, Fernando Colina, president of the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute, announced that during the 2024 mission eight projects will be carried out ranging from monitoring the penguin as a sentinel of the ecosystem to microplastic.
