Following the resounding results from this weekend’s referendum Falkland Islands delegates will tour the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America to drum up support for their right to self-determination.
Argentine President Cristina Fernández rejected the referendum held at the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, and assured it was a parody likening to a “squatters’ condominium meeting” who illegally live in an occupied territory.
The following opinion column from Argentine ambassador Alicia Castro in UK was published Monday in The Guardian.
As world leaders were arriving at Caracas late Thursday for Friday’s funeral ceremony of President Hugo Chavez, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and her delegation were back in Buenos Aires. The Argentine president visited the Military Hospital’s chapel Thursday noon for a final goodbye to the Venezuelan leader and then ordered the flight back to Buenos Aires.
The referendum on the fate of the Falkland Islands is a publicity stunt with no legal status, Argentina's ambassador to Britain said on Monday, warning that oil exploitation around the territory was impossible without better regional ties.
Opinion by Robin Goodwin -
As a Falkland Islander, I do wonder where Alicia Castro the Argentine Ambassador to the United Kingdom was educated. To not recognize that Falkland Islanders exist is plain ignorance on the part of the Argentine Government. Particularly that she is based in England.
After a first day of mixed results, Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman Malvinas lobbying in London is looking ahead to a more friendly, less combative two-day scenario at the Argentine embassy with the ‘Pro-dialogue’ group where he plans to promote Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claims that reject point blank any dialogue or the right to self determination for the people of the Falklands.
Foreign minister Hector Timerman is in London and has reiterated his request and willingness to hold a bilateral meeting with Foreign Secretary William Hague, “the two alone, to address numerous issues of the bilateral and multilateral agenda”, says a letter from Argentine Ambassador Alicia Castro dated February 4 addressed to the Foreign Office and made public in Buenos Aires.
The last round of the Falklands’ dispute between the UK and Argentina seems to have exposed a new blunder of Minister Hector Timerman, since according to the Foreign Office from the very request last December for a meeting with Foreign Secretary William Hague this month in London, the Argentine official was clearly informed that Falklands’ representatives would be present when the particular issue of the Islands was raised.
The issue of the political status of the self-governed British overseas territory Falkland Islands has dominated (non-relations) and relations since the British and Argentine war in 1982 after the Argentine military government invaded the Islands, writes Alicia Dunkley-Willis from the Jamaica Observer who recently visited the Falklands.