The Government wants Uruguay to stop receiving United Kingdom military planes at its airports

Natasha Niebieskikwiat

02/20/2020 - 9:12

• Clarín.com
• Politics

Argentina wants the next Uruguayan government to allow no more than United Kingdom military planes to land at its airports on its way to and from the Falklands. And he also wants to be on the alert for the relationship of the Oriental and British, who usually carry out trade fairs and trade missions on one side and another and in which the islands are treated with a category similar to those of a state and as Falkland Islands .

Although this issue was not addressed as a matter of complaint in the midst of a larger agenda in bilateral, regional and political policy, the conflict of sovereignty over the islands and the role of the Orientals even flew over the visit of who will be the chancellor of Luis Lacalle Pou, Ernesto Talvi . The future minister was received last Tuesday by Minister Felipe Solá at the Palacio San Martín.

x

A while earlier, the appointed ambassador to Uruguay, Alberto Iribarne, said in the Senate Agreements Committee during the presentation and legislative debate on its specifications that the Malvinas issue was going to be one of the axes in its future mission.

And on that train he revealed that there were "13 military flights from Uruguay to the Falkland Islands" in 2019, which, he said, "violates a sort of tacit agreement" with the neighbors . Because, he remarked, "the only possibility of supplying British planes in Uruguay was when it came to emergency issues."

Uruguayan politics. The Malvinas stand in Montevideo uruguay Montevideo uruguay stand of the Falklands as Falklands livestock and agribusiness exhibition in Montevideo

The former Minister of Justice also affirmed that in addition, Argentina had to work on the mutual visits of Uruguayan deputies to the Falklands, and members of the Rural Society on both sides, which he said were "examples of a British lobby in favor of its presence in the Falklands ".

On the other hand, it was striking that the meeting between Solá and Talvi was joined by Daniel Filmus, the new secretary of the Malvinas Area and islands of the South Atlantic , who with the vice chancellor, Pablo Tettamanti, and Iribarne himself were talking with Talvi de Falklands Sources consulted by Clarín , recalled that Talvi is not yet in operation until March 1 when Lacalle Pou assumes. And they said that the future chancellor was thanked for the support of historic Uruguay in the claim of sovereignty of the islands . They said that there was talk of joint cooperation in Antarctica and of deepening work at the bases of Argentina and the Artigas of Uruguay . "On the other issues we will talk later," they told this newspaper. Alberto Fernández said when he assumed that the Malvinas issue will be a priority on his agenda, but he has not drawn the same "weapons" of Kirchnerism between 2003 and 2015.

What Iribarne was referring to in Congress is the Royal Air Force planes that, since the British victory in the 1982 war with Argentina, usually cover the route between the islands and the United Kingdom. When there were more troops at the base of Mount Pleasant they made more frequencies. They usually made stops on Ascension Island, another British colony located off the coast of Africa. And in the face of humanitarian emergencies or technical damage to the aircraft , they use Carrasco airport and other terminals in Brazil to land on the route to Europe. Thirteen landings in Carrasco in one year is more than one per month and many for emergencies.

But several things happened in the last time that would explain those landings. The Ascension runway entered reforms and the flights could not continue landing there. From there even the islanders' anxiety for Argentina to allow a second commercial flight to unite them with the continent and that is how the one that connects San Pablo with Mount Pleasant weekly and once a month stops in the city of Córdoba.

And on the other hand the government of Mauricio Macri maintained a policy of dialogue with London that relaxed situations in favor of the islanders compared to the hardness of Kirchnerism in the past. Similarly, contrary to what is said, the macrismo protested against the existence of those flights. And even claimed for flights in Brazil when similar landings were detected.

Uruguay's relationship with the Falklands is as old as that of Argentina. Even before the conformation of both states. And during the administration of Buenos Aires, there were ships that came and went between Montevideo and what Stanley was. The truth is that today, also many members of rural society and eastern businessmen come and go to the islands with commercial issues and also the islanders.

A relationship that Chileans in Patagonia also expanded, but after the 1982 war. They manage the weekly Saturday flight between Punta Arenas and Chile.

In that train, Argentina always saw with annoyance that the islanders mounted their stand in different exhibitions in Montevideo with their own stand as "Falkland Islands". Augusto Pinochet's regime supported the British during the war, but today all Mercosur countries support the claim of sovereignty. However, during the blockade that Kirchnerism applied to the islands between 2003 and 2015, the ships that needed their ports were received the same but camouflaged.