Despite persistent claims before the world, and his Holiness, that the Malvinas Islands are Argentine, for the tax office in Buenos Aires in practical terms they really are a foreign country, according to the latest resolution which applies an additional fee of 20% to tickets and overseas expenditure with Argentine debit or credit cards.
The United Kingdom played down the request made by Argentine President Cristina Fernández to Pope Francis to intervene in the Falklands/Malvinas Islands sovereignty dispute and recalled the recent referendum with an overwhelming support from Islanders to remain a British overseas territory.
Writing for Penguin News its Deputy Editor, John Fowler, takes stock in the wake of the recent referendum in the Falkland Islands which resulted in a 92%turn out and 99.8% of voters opting to maintain the Islands current status as an overseas territory of Great Britain.
Canada’s Globe and Mail had an editorial on the Falklands referendum.
Not since the halcyon days of the Soviet Union has a vote been so lopsided, but there was no fraud or coercion. Ninety-two per-cent turnout; over 98% support for the Falkland Islands to retain its status as a British Overseas Territory.
British Prime Minister David Cameron stated on Friday that Pope Francis had been wrong to say last year that Britain had usurped the Falkland Islands from Argentina, saying he respectfully disagreed with the new Pontiff. His words have been interpreted as a message anticipating the Argentine government’s possible attempts to get the new pope involved in the dispute.
The Argentine government demands to control the Falkland Islands against the wishes of the people who live there are fundamentally incompatible with modern democratic values and attempts to intimidate the Islanders must cease, said Foreign Secretary William Hague in an update to Parliament.
Under the heading of “Malvinas: British” the influential Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo describes the 99.8% result of the Falklands referendum as a “compelling defeat” for the Argentine government and a litigation hard to sustain when international law rests more on the peoples’ perspective than in the historic, real or imaginary territorial possession.
The Canadian government said on Wednesday that the results of the Falkland Islands referendum are “very clear” and “only” the people of the Islands are entitled to decide on their future. However the European Commission refused to get involved in the discussion arguing it is an “internal affair” of an EU member.
“President Cristina Fernandez, we have sent you a message: we have absolutely no desire to be ruled by the Government in Buenos Aires and we hope that now you might respect that”, said the spokesperson for the Falklands’ elected government in the aftermath of the referendum which showed the Islanders almost unanimously (99.8% of ballots) want to remain a British Overseas Territory.
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.