“The Queen is not aware that we are in the XXIst century and she follows the colonialist tradition of the United Kingdom”, claimed Argentine Senator Daniel Filmus, the first reaction to the Queen’s strong message in support of the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar right to determine their political futures.
By Harold Briley from London - The Falkland Islands and Gibraltar have been reassured by the British Government that it will protect their right to choose their own way of government. The pledge was contained in the Government’s programmer and new laws for the forthcoming session of Parliament, outlined in the traditional Queen’s Speech to both Houses of Parliament.
Britain reaffirmed on Wednesday that it will ensure and protect the right to the Falkland Islanders and Gibraltarians to determine their political futures. The strong message was included in HM Queen Elizabeth traditional annual address to Parliament setting out the legislative program for the government of PM David Cameron.
The Buenos Aires media is reporting a potential incident situation in South Georgia waters which could erupt into something more complicated from the moment the Argentine research vessel ‘Eduardo Holmberg’ has been involved in scientific activities in a zone which last year was declared by the UK as a Maritime Protected Area, MPA, and which Argentina does not recognize since it considers it ‘an area in dispute’.
The full squad of competitors representing the Falkland Islands at the upcoming NatWest Island Games taking place in Bermuda from July 13 to 19 has been announced.
“British sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands as such is not accepted by the European Parliament”, according to a visiting delegation of EU lawmakers who met with their Argentine peers in Buenos Aires.
The Argentine radical group ‘Resistencia Malvinas’ protested on Thursday midday before the Lan Chile offices in downtown Buenos Aires to demand the end of the weekly air link between Punta Arenas and the Falkland Islands. The group led by Toni Lopez and with drums banging displayed banners, distributed pamphlets and burnt Union Jacks.
The release of further data from the 2012 Census shows that the Falkland Islands continues to work its magic on immigrants who may have arrived with short term plans but have settled for ten or more years and that the ratio of women to men in the Islands has increased considerably over the last four decades.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez honoured the memory of the 323 crew members from the cruiser “General Belgrano” who lost their lives during the Malvinas war, “today, 31 years ago” and described the British torpedo attack on the vessel as “a criminal and coward action”.
The Malvinas cause will only come to an end when Argentina has definitive possession of the Islands, said Argentine defence minister Arturo Puricelli during a military ceremony to remember the 31st anniversary of the loss of cruiser ‘General Belgrano”, during the Falklands’ conflict torpedoed on 2 May 1982 by a Royal Navy submersible with the loss of 323 lives.