Argentina’s Psychosis
As the Argentine government and various other Argentines whip themselves into a frenzy over the Falklands, more typical of behaviour in the Middle East than in a G20 country, here are a few rarely displayed facts about Argentina for the benefit of ignorant commentators like the Hollywood actor Sean Penn[1] and Pink Floyd artist Roger Waters[1] reportedly displaying familiar, contemptible anti-British sentiments.
Given the indisputable fact that the first human being to set foot on the Falklands was the English navy Captain John Strong in 1690, long before Argentina actually existed, Argentina’s claim to the Falklands rests entirely on its claim to be the successor of the Spanish vice-royalty of Buenos Aires. Actually Spain recognised Argentina in its then boundaries down to the Salado river only in 1842. No continuing settlement of the Falklands by Spain or Argentina was ever made.
Beginnings of Argentine Independence from Spain
On 25 May 1810 a provisional junta was set up in Buenos Aires to fight Spanish rule in the vice-royalty which stretched over the northern and central parts of today’s Argentina, as well as today’s Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay. From then until 1827 the junta in Buenos Aires (as the area was commonly known) fought among itself and also fought a succession of unsuccessful wars to assert its claims over these three countries which became completely separate as independent republics: Paraguay in 1814, Bolivia in 1825 and Uruguay in 1827.
Expansion of Argentine borders
In 1833, the year when British settlers arrived on the Falklands in accordance with its long-standing claim, predating Argentina’s very existence, what was still generally known as Buenos Aires[2] was busy with offensives against the native Indian population in the area down to the Salado river (about 550 miles south of Buenos Aires and 800 miles north of the Falklands). Under Spanish rule this had been the southern limit of the vice-royalty on which the Argentines base their claim to the Falklands. This area excludes most of Patagonia to which Buenos Aires ultimately laid claim (see below). In fact in 1851 Buenos Aires’ claim to its southern frontier reached only to the Salado river.
Cleansing of the Indian Population
In the 1870’s the government in Buenos Aires determined to “cleanse” the area down to the Chubut river (another 200 miles further south from the Salado, but still 500 miles from the Falklands). The campaign was undertaken by its Minister for War, Julio Roca, whose guiding sentiments were expressed as follows:
“Our self respect as a virile people obliges us to put down as soon as possible, by reason or by force, this handful (sic) of savages (sic) who destroy our wealth and prevent us definitely occupying in the name of law, progress and our own security, the richest and most fertile lands of the Republic.”
Much the same sentiments in fact that Hitler used to justify the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Regular succession of Coups d’Etat
The 1881 Argentine campaign to cleanse the area down to the Chubut river ended in 1884 with the formal surrender of the native chieftains, following which Argentina unilaterally annexed Patagonia down to the present border with Chile on the same latitude as the Falklands (52o South)[3].
A succession of coups d’état followed in 1890, 1929 and 1943. The semi-fascist Peronist regime (1945-1955) itself suffered a coup by the army in 1955 and in 1966 the Argentine parliament was closed indefinitely. Another coup followed in 1976 which installed Galtieri’s junta, which then set about systematically killing the Montoneros urban guerrillas opposed to its rule (the “disappeared ones”) until Argentina was defeated at the hands of the British in 1982, and a semblance of electoral democracy restored.
In summary it can be stated that even by South American standards, Argentina from its beginning as the province of Buenos Aires has been a byword for dictatorship, internal chaos and aggressive arrogance towards its neighbours[3]. It has never owned the Falkland Islands either as successor to the Spanish vice-royalty of Buenos Aires, or by settlement. It has extended its rule south over present-day Patagonia in the 40 year period between 1850 and 1890 by virtual extermination of the native inhabitants. This is the country which Sean Penn, Roger Waters and others from the acting fraternity associate themselves with when they sponsor its claims to the Falklands.
Psychologists not diplomats needed
Since 1833, up to 2000 British settlers have peaceably cultivated the previously unoccupied, windswept 4700 square miles of the Falkland Islands, which are 1200 miles from Buenos Aires and 300 miles from the South American coast which only became Argentine (by unilateral annexation) in 1884.
The Argentine claims to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia [4] and the South Sandwich Islands[4] and the neurotic, frenzied ravings which accompany these claims are clearly a matter for the psychologist not the diplomat. Another aspect of Argentina’s psychosis is its refusal to pay its international debts when it is fully capable of doing so. There are 127 outstanding claims against Argentina today[5].
The Argentine claims to the Falklands are even less valid than the ones they used to make to rule over Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay. Throughout its brief history as a country, Argentina has waged aggressive wars against all its neighbours. Its invasion of the Falklands in 1982 was absolutely in character; only force will deter it from trying again.
[1] Waters is reported as saying on Chilean TV that he was “as ashamed as he possibly could be of our colonial past when we were out raping and plundering and stealing”. Penn referred to “ludicrous and archaic British colonialism”.
[2] Buenos Aires actually seceded from Argentina in 1853 and only rejoined to form a single country in 1861.
[3] It is also aggressive towards its own people to the extent that only Spanish forenames are allowed to be registered.
[4] These were actually unkown to the inhabitants of Buenos Aires in 1810, being over 2000 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean and discovered by Captain Cook in 1775.
[5] President Obama is seeking British support to prevent the World Bank, IMF and Inter Americas Bank from lending Argentina any more cash.
May 2nd, 2012 at 12:29 am
The first British settlement was actually established in 1765, one year after a French Arcadian settlement was founded.
This British settlement precedes the nation of Argentina by 50 years.
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