MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands’ government responds Argüello’s ‘poorly researched comments’ in Mexico

“No UK payments are received. We deal in facts”, said Gilbert House

The Falkland Islands government responded Friday to the Argentine ambassador to United Nations Jorge Argüello for his comments on the Falklands’ economy and self-sufficiency while in Mexico.

Ambassador Argüello was quoted Thursday addressing an audience at the University of Mexico saying Islanders relied heavily on social benefits granted by the United Kingdom.

“England knows that if it cuts the social assistance and employment budget of the (Falkland) Islands as it has done with other (British) citizens, it will lead to the emigration to Argentina or South America, where the opposite thing is happening”.

The elected government of the Falkland Islands responded to Agüello in its twitter account (http://twitter.com/#!/falklandsgov) and fought the Ambassador words, arguing that they are entirely “auto sufficient” apart from defence which is the responsibility of the UK.

“Jorge Arguello with some poorly researched comments. Bar defence we are self sufficient. No UK payments are received. We deal in facts”, reads the Twitter message.

Sources from the Falkland Islands said they were extremely surprised not by Ambassador Argüello’s statements, (“we are accustomed”), but with the hosts of the conference, the Autonomous University of Mexico, the country’s number one and rated in the latest rankings as the number two in Latin America, only behind Brazil’s Sao Paulo university.

“That a foreign ambassador should state without the minimum decorousness what he said at the top Mexican university is but a joke, otherwise it can only be interpreted as a lack of respect for their hosts”.

“The sovereignty dispute exists, but trying to make other people believe the contrary of what can be easily checked in any world statistics, that the Falklands are entirely self-sufficient, and have been for years, and have a flourishing economy in spite of all Argentine efforts to strangle us, is simply considering the rest of the world are idiots”, said the sources.