MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Forty years after the war, Falklands remain an Argentine obsession
By Henry Srebrnik (*) – Forty years since Argentina launched its disastrous invasion of the South Atlantic archipelago in early April of 1982, its claim to the Falkland Islands remains a national obsession, even enshrined in the country’s 1994 constitution. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesAn entire pointless article written only to insert suggestively in the public's mind the notion of all this being “an obsession” ? ... while it described the main elements of why it is not.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 10:13 am - Link - Report abuse -10-
I guess anyone can just call themselves a writer of journalism!
If Argentine politicians had spent as much time with their economy as they have chasing their mythical Malvinas claim then Argentina wouldn’t be in such a mess.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 10:24 am - Link - Report abuse +10A couple of minor points:
Apr 15th, 2022 - 10:30 am - Link - Report abuse +81. 99% voted in the referendum to remain British for the time being, not 81%.
2. Argentina remained quiet, after the garrison withdrew in 1833, and said nothing between 1865 and 1941 about sovereignty.
3. The author fails to mention that Argentina inherited nothing from Spain, in fact Spain did not recognise its independence until 1858.
4. Four Falkland Islanders died because of the Argentine invasion, not three as is always stated.
1. The referendum is irrelevant to the territorial dispute between Argentina and UK. The islanders arrived several years after the dispute started. The referendum addresses a matter regarding whoever has authority over the islands. It is not Argentina that is ruling over the islander's lives. You can't go into a restaurant and just because you prefer fish, tell the owners to stop making steak for everyone else that evening! You people are ridiculous sometimes.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 11:07 am - Link - Report abuse -142. Total lie. Argentina officially protested immediately after in June of 1833. It had Manuel Moreno go to London on an official visit during which it discussed the issue concerning Vernet's settlement on behalf of Argentina.
This is what I mean by how the British narrative has filled all of your jar head brains with a one sided contemptuous deceitful storyline, that attempts to extract all Argentine aspects of history. And when you do finally learn facts regarding Argentina, all your work goes towards trying and “re-describe” them, attempting to create a delegitimizing version. Like when you try to underline that Vernet was Hungarian! Or that Patagonia was “stolen” (like the rest of the world is not being “stolen” all the time by someone who speaks English) LOL .You're all so transparently mean at heart, and such total deceitful cheaters.
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3. LOL.. Argentina never claimed “Spain bequeathed us Malvinas” lol you idiots. Argentina fought Spain for independence and earned this way its territory like all country's do, Then whatever area has to do directly with the people who fought is considered “won territory” Malvinas was already part of Buenos Aires' administration. People who were part of the new nation were either still alive or were sons of those sent by Spain to kick the British off the islands in 1770, by 1776 Buenos Aires became its administrative metropolis or governing seat. Argentina “came” with Malvinas attached and hence why David Jewett felt absolutely correct about making it official in 1820
Aha the refreshment of the loser’s lament.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 11:15 am - Link - Report abuse +6Trimonde the United Provinces/Argentina inherited nothing from Spain, there was nothing to inherit, Britain claimed the islands long before Spain, you call us idiots, deceitful cheaters, liars etc, I suggest you take a long look at yourself in the mirror and remove yourself from the alternate universe you live in.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 11:30 am - Link - Report abuse +8Trimonde - ''Argentina “came” with Malvinas attached and hence why David Jewett felt absolutely correct about making it official in 1820''
Apr 15th, 2022 - 11:34 am - Link - Report abuse +4Argentina’s claims that Jewett was ordered to take possession of the Falklands for the Buenos Aires regime is simply preposterous. In any case he had crossed the line from being a privateer to a pirate and his declaration had no legal consequence.
Jewett’s Taking Possession of the Falklands (1 pg): https://www.academia.edu/67805182/Jewetts_taking_Possession_of_the_Falklands
Trimonde off again on his lone campaign to recover something that has never been theirs.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 12:00 pm - Link - Report abuse +9It is becoming boring listening to a half dozen Argentine trouble makers.
The reality is right here today the Falkland are British and in another 10,000 years it will still be British. Might be independent by then but will still be very much aligned with Britain.
The way Argentina is heading it will likely be non existent in the next decade. That is the fear and reason they are promoting this rubbish.
Seen it all in 1982 and look where it got them.
Now would be a very good time to stop this impossible land grab campaign and start looking at how they can rebuild their failed economy.
That is really a national obsession. Are there any similar cases in the world today? A country which “lost” a small, almost uninhabited, alleged, part of their territory in the early 19th century and almost 200 years later still has the “recovery” of that land as its highest priority. To me it sounds almost insane. Sweden, e-g., lost Finland in 1809. There was a conflict around the Alands islands hundred years ago. But it was solved and nobody in Sweden claims any part of Finland today. Perhaps Russia could be compared with Argentina, trying to “recover” lost territories of the Soviet empire.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 02:15 pm - Link - Report abuse +8Oh, so you’re not obsessed with the Falklands huh, Trimonde? Are you avvin a laugh?
Apr 15th, 2022 - 07:37 pm - Link - Report abuse +3Argentina loves the Falklands because it can use it as a trick to fool the less intelligent of its population. Look at poor old Trimonde, violent towards his own mother, but too thick to find his 'arris with both hands. He genuinely believes Argentina has a case and Britain is his enemy, and all the while he uses his lonely braincell on that obsession, he fails to notice his government “shafting him from behind without even the courtesy of a reach around”.
Apr 15th, 2022 - 08:17 pm - Link - Report abuse +6Britain voluntarily gave up its Empire, it handed over territory many times the size of Argentina peacefully...it has no wish for an Empire or some windswept islands in the South Atlantic.
That is the irony, Trimonde has an obsession for something nobody in Britain wants.
So, if Britain doesn't want the islands and Argentina does, why can a deal not be done.
The answer is simple, the rights of the islanders are paramount. Their livelihoods, their society and their way of life is directly threatened by the backward, vicious, childish, corrupt lunatics in Argentina.
There is the irony, the day Argentina was grown up enough to be trusted with islanders welfare, is the day they'd no longer want the islands, which is the day they could have them.
All the while the Argentine government uses dumbos like Trimonde to concentrate on a make believe enemy 6000 miles away.
An obsession over a lost cause. Despite several attempts Argentina has never been able to have and hold the Falkland Islands.
Apr 16th, 2022 - 04:08 am - Link - Report abuse +5In 1833 when Manuel Moreno, the Argentine Minister in London protested against the British reoccupation of the Islands he acknowledged that:
'to establish a right to dominion on a fortuitous act of discovery, or on a momentary possession, is not sufficient: it must be formal or tranquil settlement, which includes habitation and culture'.
So, a minister of the Argentine Government admitted, at that time, that Argentina did not hold a valid claim to sovereignty in the Falklands.
The United Province's claim that it had a 'right' to succeed to Spanish possession of the Falklands was just an assertion, how much it could actually acquire depended on its ability to establish its authority in the Islands. When Spain agreed to recognise Argentine independence in 1859, it was Argentina without the Falklands, with no explicit transfer of any rights which Spain may have held over the Islands. As Britain was mediator between the newly constituted nation and Spain, it would have been most unlikely that she would have permitted any such transfer or allowed into the treaty of recognition anything which could have been interpreted as a challenge to British sovereignty in the islands.
By 1859 Britain had held the Islands for 26 years and had 'established formal and tranquil settlement which included habitation and culture'.
Argentina's historical claim to the islands in not supported by facts but over time has grown from an aspiration to an obsession. This is not good for Argentina or its image as a good global citizen and it presents a continuing threat to peace and stability in the South Atlantic.
Argentina's ongoing persecution of the islanders is an affront to their legal right to self determination.
Canada Exsists with a French controlled island off its coast and continues its vicious whiskey war with Denmark. Over an island they run up a flag leave a bottle of whisky. The Danes turn up take the whiskey leave vodka run.up their flag and repeat.
Apr 16th, 2022 - 04:56 am - Link - Report abuse +2Thats how Adults deal with neighbours.
‘To Fitzroy – please read the article carefully.
Apr 16th, 2022 - 02:25 pm - Link - Report abuse +2The writer Henry Srebrnik says that in 2021 a total of 81% of the 5,000 ARGENTINES polled said that Argentina should continue to claim sovereignty over the Islands. He does not refer to the Falklands poll.
Mr. Srebrnik is correct in writing that 3 Islanders died during the conflict. Indeed 3 inhabitants did lose their lives, but to clarify further it should be noted that 2 of the deceased were locally born Islanders and the 3rd was a young lady school teacher from England.
I wonder how many of the 81% of Argentine public would continue to feel so strongly if they knew the truth behind the events leading up to 1833.
Apr 17th, 2022 - 09:55 am - Link - Report abuse +21) The Spanish population on the islands returned to Spain, via Uruguay and left the islands empty, none of them became Argentine.
2) Luis Vernet was aware of the sovereignty debate before going to the islands and requested permission from both the United Provinces and Great Britain, Vernet left voluntarily leaving the British Matthew Brisbane in charge of his business.
3) Argentine sent Mestevier to the islands to finally claim them for Argentina, he was murdered by his own crew, and his wife raped in front of their children. The British had already stated they did not recognise the Argentine mission, and evicted the 26 murderers and rapists (and the remaining crew of the Sarandi) 90 days after they arrived.
Its not much of a claim is it? But it of course is not the fairy tales sold to the masses either.
Spain and Britain argued over the sovereignty of Jamaica, today the people of Jamaica (an implanted population) decide their future, ditto Trinidad, ditto Cuba....
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