MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands: Uruguay lawmaker calls for direct links with ‘kelpers’ and a change in government’s policy

Trobo: “we do not admit that the Islands community is not recognized, and considered as alien to the South American coast”

Lawmaker Jaime Trobo invited his peers in the Lower House to review the Uruguayan government’s position regarding the Malvinas Islands and without questioning Argentine sovereignty, establish close trade and human links with the Islanders, as in the past, eliminating the ‘sanitary ring’ imposed by the current Argentine government.

In a fifteen minutes speech to the House on Tuesday, Trobo made a recount, and exposed conclusions, of his recent experience in the Falklands which he visited in early March as part of a group of observers to the Islands’ referendum when an overwhelming majority decided to remain under British sovereignty.

Trobo recalled the close links that historically existed between Uruguay and the Malvinas community and more recently the fluid trade involving mainly fisheries and general cargo which has ceased since the ‘sanitary ring’ imposed by Argentina and supported by the Uruguayan government, which has not impeded the Malvinas Islands vessels to operate in south Brazil ports.

“We do not admit that the Islands community is not recognized, and considered as alien to the South American coast” emphasized Trobo who called for solidarity with the ‘kelpers’ and rejected the de facto Argentine blockade of the Malvinas.

Trobo then pointed out to the fact that Uruguay has good relations with countries involved in international differences such is the case with Chile and Bolivia, countries who have a dispute over access to the Pacific.

“We have our border disputes with Brazil, we had them with Argentina, but this did not prevent us from having good relations with both neighbours”, said Trobo.

The lawmaker also underlined the potential for trade relations and business opportunities for Uruguay and the Malvinas given the geographical closeness and long established links.

“It took us two days to reach Port Stanley, because the only air link with Malvinas from the continent is a weekly flight from the extreme south of Chile, Punta Arenas. The trip was Montevideo, Santiago, Punta Arenas, Port Stanley, and we are only two and a half hours away from Malvinas”, underlined Trobo.

Speaking for the government, lawmaker Ruben Martinez Huelmo quoted a document from the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry on the peoples’ right to self determination in which “the UK claims over the Malvinas refers to a non existent historic right”.

“The Islanders are not an autonomous people but a ‘transplanted’ population which is dependent on the British crown” said Martinez Huelmo adding that the Argentine arguments to claim sovereignty are far more solid than those exposed by the United Kingdom.

Another government lawmaker from the ruling coalition, Carlos Gamou said Uruguay considers Argentina ‘a brotherly country’ and also considers the UK a ‘friend’ and much respected for having fought and resisted Nazi Germany but in the case of the Malvinas “she’s behaving as the perfidious colonial Albion”.

However Trobo pointed out he was not talking or arguing about the Malvinas sovereignty but rather about the Islands’ community, that also has human rights, and should not be isolated or left locked in by a ‘sanitary ring’ imposed by Argentina and which the government of the Broad Front complies ignoring they are people.