[The Bureau of Longitudes and the founding of the La Plata Observatory in Argentina (1882-1890)].

In 1882, the director of the Córdoba Observatory became involved in a debate over international missions that were observing the transit of Venus across the sun, criticizing them for doing "harm to science, leaving substance aside in search of a shadow." The governor of Buenos Aires province and members of France's Bureau of Longitudes fostered these missions, and the instruments they used would serve in the founding of the local observatory in La Plata. The Córdoba observatory's second director would later state that the work carried out in La Plata had been as useful as "a single well bucket in irrigating the area covered by Córdoba's canals." The article reveals the hidden rivalry between international networks engaged in mutual accusations and the ensuing disputes between institutions.