By Ronald Sanders - The national and regional interests of Commonwealth Caribbean countries would hardly be served by backing Argentina in its long-running dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.
US actor Sean Penn gave his full support to Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands and underlined the conflict must be solved through dialogue. The Hollywood star visited Buenos Aires on Monday as representative of the Haitian people and survivors of the earthquake that bashed the Caribbean nation in 2011.
A controversy has erupted in Argentina following lawmakers vote to double their congressional income while the federal government is cutting on subsidies and expenditure and has suggested ‘salary moderation’ for the coming round of negotiations with a roof of 20%.
A huge pulp mill, UPM, which has been at the heart of a several years’ controversy between Uruguay and Argentina, does not contaminate revealed Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro before the Uruguayan parliament.
The Argentine congress will be holding an extraordinary session next 24 February in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego to debate on the Falklands/Malvinas conflict. Under the 1994 Argentine constitution, the Falklands come under the jurisdiction of the province of Tierra del Fuego.
Chilean Foreign Affairs minister Alfredo Moreno denied rumours that Argentina had requested Chile to join a blockade of the Falklands Islands and also reassured that the government of President Cristina Fernandez has not questioned the commercial air link between Santiago and the Islands.
The Argentine Catholic Church supports the country’s claim over the Falklands/Malvinas Islands but also called on the Executive and the rest of the Argentine leadership not to use the Malvinas issue with a political purpose.
Relations with the Uruguayan government couldn’t be better, with no obstacles ahead, and much of the success of the Uruguayan economy is influenced by Argentina, said ambassador in Montevideo Dante Dovena.
At least 24 people were injured after Argentine police using rubber bullets, tear gas, dogs and riot vehicles violently cleared demonstrators blocking a national route to protest a mining project by Swiss and Canadian companies in the northeast of the country.
Argentina’s consumer prices inflation reached 0.9% in January, accumulating 9.7% in the last twelve months according to the official Indec national statistics bureau. The index is less than half the private estimate or “Congress index”, 1.9%.