In a televised announcement yesterday evening, the president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, called on British prime minister, David Cameron, to “give peace a chance” in the ongoing dispute over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands.
President Fernández said that Britain’s decision to send a destroyer ship to the islands was evidence of a “militarisation of the South Atlantic”, which she called “a threat to international security”. Although the British secretary of defence, Phillip Hammond, said it was a routine deployment, President Fernández said Argentina would file an official complaint with the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly.
President Fernández also mentioned Prince William, who is currently in the islands on a six-week tour of duty, saying that “we would have liked to see the royal heir in civilian clothes, not a military uniform.”
The speech took place at 7.15pm amid huge speculation in local media about a major announcement that could include a commercial blockade of the Falklands/Malvinas islands.
The re-elected president called Argentina’s claim to the islands a “Latin American cause and a global cause”, referring to the support of several Latin American states that have backed Mercosur in its blockade against ships flying the Falklands/Malvinas’ flag. She added that there are only 16 cases of colonialism around the world and that ten involve the UK.
As President Fernández called for a peaceful way of solving the conflict she claimed, “We are people who have suffered too much already because of violence”.
The president also declared official the declassification of war documents that were never published by the military dictatorship after the 1982 conflict. The report, compiled by former General Benjamín Rattenbach, evaluates ‘the political responsibilities and military strategy’ of the war.
Veterans Protest
President Fernández spoke inside the Casa Rosada, in a hall called Galeria de los Patriotas Latino Americanos, where politicians from the government and from other parties were invited to listen the announcements about the Malvinas/Falklands.
At the same time, a group of veterans of the Falklands/Malvinas war protested outside the Casa Rosada that they could not get in even though they had been promised “eight seats”.
During the speech, the president remembered the 439 soldiers that have committed suicide after the war had ended announced the construction of a mental health hospital for veterans of the conflict. But according to the same group of veterans outside the Casa Rosada, this hospital already exists. Upon leaving the building, the congressman José María Diaz Bancalari, of the government’s Frente para la Victoria party, was attacked by some of the protestors, and had to be escorted to his car by the police.
Long-Running Claim
After a convincing re-election victory last year, President Fernández has put Argentina’s territorial claim over the Falklands/Malvinas at the top of the public agenda, stressing that she seeks a peaceful and diplomatic solution.
Since the re-establishment of democracy in Argentina on the 10th December 1983, 18 months after the end of the war, each president of Argentina has repeated the country’s claim with increasing insistence.
Raúl Alfonsín, elected president in 1983, took the discussion to international organisations. After him, Carlos Menem, became the first Argentine president since the conflict, to visit the prime minister, then Tony Blair, in London. Blair subsequently became the first British prime minister to visit Argentina after the war, during Fernando de la Rúa’s presidency in 2001.
Eduardo Duhalde, appointed in 2002, declared that Argentina will repossess the Falklands/Malvinas islands but not through war, while Néstor Kirchner, after being elected 2003, sought support for Argentina’s stance among other South American countries.
If the Argies attacked and occupied the Islands, there would be a revolution in Britain! Our government know that. Personally I’m all for turning Argentina into the world’s largest car park.