There was considerable anticipation and speculation in the Falkland Islands on Tuesday as residents and visitors alike waited to hear Argentine president Cristina Kirchner’s much-publicized evening announcement.
A French photographer was stabbed to death Wednesday morning in Buenos Aires Plaza San Martin, after thieves tried to steal his camera while he was taking pictures of the monument honouring the Argentine Malvinas War memorial.
The latest round of imports’ restrictions imposed by the government of President Cristina Fernandez and how to address them have triggered a serious debate inside the ministerial cabinet of Uruguayan president Jose Mujica.
President Cristina Fernandez hopes to convince Brazil to join Argentina in its campaign against the multinational corporations in an effort to balance trade balances in the midst of the global crisis spurred by the Euro crisis, China’s slow reaction and the US economy which still has to recover from the full impact of the 2008/09 recession.
The Buenos Aires media revealed late Tuesday that Antonio Brufau, CEO from Repsol-YPF, which has a dominating position in the oil and gas market in Argentina met with top officials from the President Cristina Fernandez administration.
Peru’s former Foreign Affairs minister, Jose Antonio Garcia-Belaunde, says it is unlikely that Peru would back Argentina if there were a new conflict with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands, newspaper El Comercio reported.
Lawmaker Ivan Moreira from the ruling coalition junior partner UDI said that Chile should not get involved in the Falklands/Malvinas issue which has to be addressed between Argentina and the UK, and recalled that Chile has its own problem with the coming International Court of Justice dispute with neighbouring Peru.
In a much expected speech President Cristina Fernandez announced a further escalation of the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty diplomatic dispute with the UK including formal ‘militarization’ complaints before the United Nations, a personal attendance with a delegation from all parties next June 14 to the UN decolonization committee and called on PM David Cameron to “give peace a chance”
“We are well aware that Chile has a different position to us regarding the Falklands and this we understand, but it must be the Islanders who determine their political future, not London, not Buenos Aires or third countries”, said UK ambassador in Chile Jon Benjamin in an interview with the Chilean media.
The following piece was published by The Independent, an interview of the Falkland Islands Governor Nigel Haywood by Falklands-born writer, journalist and expert in Latin American and defense affairs, Graham Bound.