MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milei team insists, if elected president “Falkland Islanders will be respected”

Diana Mondino, “I reiterate it, I repit it and I reaffirm it, the Islanders living in the Falklands/Malvinas will have their rights respected if Milei becomes president,”

“I reiterate it, I repeat it and I reaffirm it, the Islanders living in the Falklands/Malvinas will have their rights respected if Milei becomes president,” emphasized Diana Mondino, most probably foreign minister of Javier Milei, if he is finally elected as the next Argentine occupant of the Pink House in Buenos Aires in the October/November election.

Ms Mondino has been repeatedly interviewed and questioned by the Argentine media following on her statement to The Telegraph that if libertarian economist Javier Milei is elected as the next Argentine president, as opinion polls seem to clearly indicate (although many have failed in their forecasts recently), “the rights of Malvinas Islanders will be respected”.

As expected talking about the rights of Falkland Islanders in Argentina is anathema, since Argentines are indoctrinated all along the education system that Islanders are 'squatters', living on usurped Argentine territory, with a population settled by a colonial power.

However Ms Mondino asked about it, “reiterated, repeated and reaffirmed” statements on Islanders' rights to The Telegraph, recalling that Islanders were born in Argentine territory, as the Islands are considered in Argentina, and under the country's legislation anyone born as an Argentine citizen has his rights and interests respected and protected, as happens with any other Argentine be him from Corrientes, Cordoba, Santa Cruz or Chaco.

Furthermore Ms Mondino argued than under Argentine legislation prevails “ius solis”, meaning the nationality of a person is determined on the basis of their country of birth. She exemplified with the Russian mothers going to Argentina to have their babies and thus will be forever exempt from military service in Russia, since they are Argentine citizens.

Media insisted, Islanders might have rights, but will never have the opportunity to express their opinions or vote in Argentina, to which Ms Mondino counter replied, “tell me which Argentine born in Corrientes, Cordoba or any other Argentine province has the right to have a word on territorial issues?”

Bur Argentine media argued if Islanders rights are respected, they have the right to sit in UK/Argentina negotiations, and that is point blank out of the question because Islanders will never accept Argentine citizenship or passports.

Anyhow, given the controversy, media contacted an Argentine diplomat, rational and expert in Falklands/Malvinas issues, who was the deputy foreign minister with Guido di Tella, Andres Cisneros. Now retired but still aware of Falklands/Malvinas issues, Cisneros praised Diana Mondino as a very capable, intelligent future minister, “maybe she has committed some mistakes as a fresh person in the job,” but Cisneros “will always believe Ms Mondino when it comes to the interview with The Telegraph since the UK media is tricky and likes to set traps.”

Among the mistakes allegedly committed by Ms Mondino, Cisneros pointed out to the fact the expression Islanders' rights was too ample, and should have been more specific, since most of those rights are included in the Argentine constitution of 1994. Similarly not making the difference between 'interests' and 'wishes', a corner stone of Argentine arguments. But overall Cisneros anticipated she would be a great foreign minister, and insisted that both Milei and Mondino, like the majority of Argentines want the Malvinas returned.

Cisneros said the Falklands eventually bill be given back to Argentina, but it's a long, long road. “The problem are not the Islanders or the English, the problem is with us.

Until Argentina again becomes a serious, respectful, reliable, trust worthy country, with the right friends in the world, and not a lost, begging, friendless country, we will have to continue waiting for decades.”

Cisneros praised Mondino and Milei for bringing up the Hong Kong case, when the colony was returned to China through diplomacy and common sense, and mentioned the skills of British diplomacy in letting go its empire and colonies. “Why keep a colony lost in the South Atlantic, it's not an English whim, it's our incompetence, it could have been easily solved years ago” said Cisneros who then mentioned two occasions in which London was prepared to hand over the Falklands.

The first was in president Peron's last presidency 1973. “The English offered to hand the Islands in a hundred years, but in the meantime sovereignty and administration was shared by the two countries. Peron accepted immediately and ordered foreign minister Vignes to prepare all the documents. Unfortunately Peron died not long after, July 1974,”

Allegedly Peron's only objection was “tell the English to be more polite not a hundred years, make it fifty!”.

Another occasion was October 1981, when Foreign Office minister Nicholas Ridley made the same 100 years offer with shared administration. Argentina was ruled by a divided military Junta and were not forthcoming. In effect they had other things in mind because as we all know now, six months later they invaded the Falklands, 1982“.

Cisneros finally revealed that the famous ”seduction“ policy which included gifts of the Winnie the Pooh, was not intended to the Islanders, ”they will never accept us“, but rather UK public opinion and voters. ”Make the British aware they were holding on to a costly, distracting colony in the South Atlantic, it was time to change and drop the Malvinas and return them to Argentina“. That was our intention with Di Tella, ”seducing the English electorate”.