England, Argentina And The Falklands

It's been 25 years since the Iron Lady whomped hell out of Argentina for invading the Falkland Islands. The Argentinian president, Nestor Kirchner is stirring things up again, though according to The Guardian.

There are three perennial passions in Argentina: football, the tango and the country's claim to Britain's South Atlantic outpost, the Falkland Islands. Even the build-up to Argentina's World Cup game against Germany yesterday failed to entirely deflect attention from what in the last few months has become the hot political issue.

In the latest of a series of provocative moves - provocative, at least, when seen from the Falklands and the Foreign Office - the Argentinian parliament on Thursday established a commission to investigate how to win control of the islands Argentinians refer to as the Malvinas.

In Britain, the issue is regarded today mainly as historical. Margaret Thatcher and Rex Hunt, the Falklands governor when the Argentinians invaded the islands in 1982, joined 293 others at Lincoln's Inn in London on June 13 to mark Liberation Day. Plans are being prepared at the Ministry of Defence and other government departments for a march-past by veterans down Whitehall next year, the 25th anniversary of the war.

But for the Argentinian president, Nestor Kirchner, a Peronist with leftwing leanings, the issue is more than just historical. He has embarked on a renewed push for the islands and enlisted the support of other left-leaning leaders, from Cuba's Fidel Castro to Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. For Mr Kirchner it is personal as well as political. He was born in, and became mayor of, the southern Patagonian port of Río Gallegos, a city that sits directly across from the Falklands and from where Argentinian troops embarked for their failed invasion.

"Kirchner views the Malvinas question with a Patagonian eye, a view hardened by the geographic proximity and the war," according to a Buenos Aires-based political analyst, Rosendo Fraga. "I don't think it was Kirchner's original intention but the sovereignty issue has provided a rallying point to gather left-leaning Latin American governments into an anti- colonial bloc."

British government officials are privately dismissive, seeing the sudden renewed interest in the islands as little more than a piece of political cynicism, motivated by Mr Kirchner's drive for re-election next year. One of the officials said yesterday that about 200 diplomats, journalists, ex-combatants and legislators took part in Thursday's commission launch "but it contained few surprises, just the usual rhetoric from firebrands about the islands, depicting the UK as the Evil One".

The British government, while far from alarmed, is expecting the rumbling to continue and become louder as the election draws closer.

Notice the list of bad actors involved? Castro and Chavez. The Islanders do not want anything to do with Argentina and prefer to stay part of the remnants of the British Empire.

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1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Blog Archive » Chavez Stirring The Pot — Saturday, 1 July , 2006 @ 4:41 pm