Las Malvinas Son Argentinas: Return to the Falklands?

[Judi Lynn]

April 4, 2016
Las Malvinas Son Argentinas: Return to the Falklands?

by John Wight

The longstanding dispute over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic between Britain and Argentina is once again in the news; this time as a result of the recent findings of a UN commission that has adjudicated that Argentina’s existing maritime territory in the South Atlantic be expanded by 35%, thus bringing the Falklands within Argentine territorial waters.

Known in Argentina and throughout Latin America as Las Malvinas, the Falklands, which lie 300 miles off the coast of Argentina and over 8,000 miles from Britain, have long been the subject of territorial dispute. At the beginning of the 19th-century Spain held sovereignty over the islands, occupying them for 40 years up until 1811, after which its former colony of Argentina asserted sovereignty. The islands came under British control in 1833, when they were seized by force, and have remained a British territory ever since.

Various British officials have, over the years, even admitted to the indefensibility of Britain’s act of colonialism in seizing control of the islands in the early nineteenth century. In 1936, for example, John Troutbeck, then head of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s American department, outlined the problem surrounding Britain’s control of the Falklands in a memo to his superiors. He wrote that our “seizure of the Falkland Islands in 1833 was so arbitrary a procedure as judged by the ideology of the present day. It is therefore not easy to explain our possession without showing ourselves up as international bandits.”

In 1982 the war between Britain and Argentina, which ensued when the then Argentinian government attempted to seize back the islands by force, cost the lives of 258 British and over 600 Argentinian servicemen. It proved a turning point in the fortunes of the nascent and up to then deeply unpopular Tory government led by Margaret Thatcher. Jingoism swept the country, allowing Thatcher to press ahead with the structural adjustment of the UK economy, which in the process devastated working class communities and delivered a resounding defeat to the trade union movement over the course of a series of hard fought strikes and industrial disputes throughout the early and mid 1980s.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/04/las-malvinas-son-argentinas-return-to-the-falklands/

[Ghost Dog]

1. Oh, I have to quote the excellent closing paragraph:

... The Falkland Islands constitute one of the last remnants of British colonialism. They are a living reminder of the economic piracy that is the true history of an empire which stands as a monument to human suffering and super exploitation. As such, the sooner this history is brought to a close when it comes to a small group of islands in the South Atlantic the sooner the better. As for the 3000 inhabitants of the Falklands, if this contempible group of people continue with their obdurate refusal to countenance any negotiation over shared sovereignty or any change to the status quo with Argentina at all, choosing instead to embrace the dubious privilege of prancing around in Union Jack underwear, let them do it in Britain itself. Let them have a taste of the foodbanks, disintegrating NHS, dwindling public services, low wage employment, and lack of affordable housing that the rest of us have to put up with. Let’s see if the British citizenship they hold so dear retains its lustre then.

[sharp_stick]

3. Yeah, the Argentinian economy is

just so much better.

[sharp_stick]

2. What a load

The British have asked those living in The Falklands what they want several times. They want to stay British.

[Blue_Tires]

4. Unless the Argies are willing to start another war

the Falklands will remain in British hands...

[MisterP]

5. now I know Macri's in trouble--noise over the Islands of St-Malo perfectly indexes the economy

Guatemala's Mr. Blackface wants Belize "back" too