Simon Tisdall: This isn't Falklands II
[Simon Tisdall is an assistant editor of the Guardian and a foreign affairs columnist.]
It was Karl Marx who said "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce" – and in the case of the abruptly reigniting dispute over the Falkland Islands, aka Las Malvinas, there is reason to hope he was right. Argentina's latest protests, sparked by the prospect of an oil bonanza around the islands, could easily be dismissed as hot air. But that was the mistake Britain made last time, and almost 1,000 people paid with their lives.
The parallels with the runup to the 1982 war, echoing eerily down the years, are uncanny, although susceptible to exaggeration. The Iron Lady star of today's supposed sequel is not Britain's Margaret Thatcher. It is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina's president and wife of her immediate presidential predecessor, Néstor Kirchner. She once styled herself "Evita with a clenched fist". She has shown she's not scared of a fight.
Like Thatcher, Kirchner has spent much of her time in office battling trade unions while trying to resuscitate an indebted, moribund economy. Regional analysts say the government, dependent on continuing international support since the country's $100bn debt default in 2001, is wary of unleashing a patriotic furore. But next year is presidential election year in Argentina.
If Kirchner and her husband can overcome corruption accusations arising from their substantial personal wealth, one or the other may seek a second term in office. And how better to set the blood racing, and the voters voting, than a noisy, passionate spat with frigid, faraway Britain? Kirchner is on record as describing Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the Falklands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands as "inalienable". It was a national duty, she said in 2008, to remove "the shameful presence of a colonial enclave".
Argentina's action this week in requiring shipping to obtain permits to travel to or through the disputed waters around the islands was immediately characterised as a "blockade' – another echo of 1982.
But islanders say they have been under economic siege by Argentina for many years and have survived. And there is no need this time for an exclusion zone of the type imposed by Britain after the invasion. A 500-square mile sovereign economic zone now surrounds the Falklands, protected by a Royal Navy destroyer, Typhoon jet fighters and about 1,300 military personnel...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
It was Karl Marx who said "history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce" – and in the case of the abruptly reigniting dispute over the Falkland Islands, aka Las Malvinas, there is reason to hope he was right. Argentina's latest protests, sparked by the prospect of an oil bonanza around the islands, could easily be dismissed as hot air. But that was the mistake Britain made last time, and almost 1,000 people paid with their lives.
The parallels with the runup to the 1982 war, echoing eerily down the years, are uncanny, although susceptible to exaggeration. The Iron Lady star of today's supposed sequel is not Britain's Margaret Thatcher. It is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina's president and wife of her immediate presidential predecessor, Néstor Kirchner. She once styled herself "Evita with a clenched fist". She has shown she's not scared of a fight.
Like Thatcher, Kirchner has spent much of her time in office battling trade unions while trying to resuscitate an indebted, moribund economy. Regional analysts say the government, dependent on continuing international support since the country's $100bn debt default in 2001, is wary of unleashing a patriotic furore. But next year is presidential election year in Argentina.
If Kirchner and her husband can overcome corruption accusations arising from their substantial personal wealth, one or the other may seek a second term in office. And how better to set the blood racing, and the voters voting, than a noisy, passionate spat with frigid, faraway Britain? Kirchner is on record as describing Argentina's claim to sovereignty over the Falklands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands as "inalienable". It was a national duty, she said in 2008, to remove "the shameful presence of a colonial enclave".
Argentina's action this week in requiring shipping to obtain permits to travel to or through the disputed waters around the islands was immediately characterised as a "blockade' – another echo of 1982.
But islanders say they have been under economic siege by Argentina for many years and have survived. And there is no need this time for an exclusion zone of the type imposed by Britain after the invasion. A 500-square mile sovereign economic zone now surrounds the Falklands, protected by a Royal Navy destroyer, Typhoon jet fighters and about 1,300 military personnel...