Malvinas war veterans unfurl a banner in front of a replica of the Darwin cemetery in Pilar. JUAN MABROMATA (AFP)
“The Malvinas, Argentines, the wind cries out and the sea roars”, all the children of Argentina sing in schools.
There are cities called Argentine Malvinas, streets and public buildings too, and the drawing of these South Atlantic islands claimed in the country's Constitution is everywhere.
The military defeat of Argentina in the war that it waged against the United Kingdom for the sovereignty of the Malvinas in 1982 did not put an end to the Argentine claim, but it marked a break against the interests of the South American country that has expanded in the 40 years that have elapsed since then.
Starting in the 1970s, the two countries had begun talks at the request of the United Nations Decolonization Committee, which in 1965 recognized the islands as a colonial enclave and urged Argentina and the United Kingdom to dialogue.
The war not only annihilated those negotiations but also consolidated British rule over the Falklands and neighboring South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The nearly 3,000 inhabitants of the islands became British citizens with all rights and all contact with Argentina was interrupted: national companies were expelled and citizens of the South American country were prohibited from entering Malvinas (with exceptions, for which it was visa approval required) until 1999. In 2013, 99.8% of Kelpers voted in a referendum—rejected by Argentina—in favor of continuing to be British territory.
“The question of the sovereignty of the Malvinas for Argentina is a State policy sustained since the United Kingdom usurped the islands in 1833 and recognized in the Argentine Constitution.
The Malvinas issue is a priority, so the bilateral relationship will not develop its full potential until this issue is resolved”, underlines the Secretary for Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, Guillermo Carmona.
The Argentines fight for everything, but Malvinas unites them.
Even in the divided Argentine political class, the crack disappears when it comes to defending this national cause.
Since the return of democracy in 1983, each government has taken the dispute over sovereignty to the United Nations and has maintained it in bilateral talks, but in turn has adopted very different strategies, which have oscillated between seduction and sanctions. .
One of the most remembered policies was that of Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and his Foreign Minister Guido di Tella.
Under his government, the bilateral link was reestablished under what was known as the "sovereignty umbrella" that allowed discussing issues on the South Atlantic without renouncing the claim of sovereignty and the door to the entry of Argentines with passports was also reopened, but in Popular memory of that period went down in history for Di Tella's eccentric Christmas gifts to Kelper families, such as the Winnie the Pooh teddy bears they received in 1998.
The arrival of Kirchnerism to power in 2003 was a great contrast.
The Argentine Foreign Ministry hardened the tone of its claim on the islands, especially after Great Britain authorized oil prospecting in the waters of the islands in 2010. Once the exploration work began, Argentina began to sanction the oil companies and also the companies fishing companies authorized by the United Kingdom to fish around the Malvinas.
“Since the return of democracy, no government has had many achievements on the Malvinas cause due to Argentina's erratic foreign policy.
We went from policies of seduction to distancing and sanctions”, admits the diplomat Juan Pablo Lohlé.
“The bilateral balance in these 40 years favored Great Britain for its policy of fait accompli in fishing and oil”, he adds.
Fish and oil reserves
“The South Atlantic is a completely transnationalized sea of growing international relevance, unlike what happened in 1982. It is the last great fish reserve in the world due to the fishing depredation that has emptied other seas and it also has large oil reserves, the of the Brazilian 'pre-salt'”, says international analyst Jorge Castro.
"Argentina has to play a fundamental role in the maintenance and conservation of these reserves," he continues, requesting a major agreement with all the actors present in the area, including the United Kingdom and the island's authorities, to whom Argentina He does not recognize.
"The Government of the islands is the illegitimate British colonial government," replies the Secretary of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, who rejects any agreement on the joint exploitation of fishing resources because they are "resources of the Argentine people that are being exploited illegal by the UK.
Fishing licenses are the main source of income for the kelpers, who have a GDP per capita close to 70,000 dollars, higher than that of the United Kingdom (40,000) and about eight times higher than that of Argentina.
The growing prosperity of the Malvinas inhabitants and the official position of the South American country have increasingly alienated the local population, according to Argentines who have visited the islands in recent decades.
In 1999, they were received with skepticism but also a certain curiosity, while today an attitude of rejection prevails, they point out.
Those who have traveled there these days have had to do so via London, because since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the two weekly flights from Chile —with a stopover once a month in the Argentine city of Río Gallegos— and from Brazil —with a stopover in Córdoba— are canceled for health reasons.
"Argentina's attitude towards the islands is not bad, but it is cruel," Teslyn Barkman, one of the eight members of the Assembly of the islands, told La Nación newspaper.
In her opinion, the biggest problem that Argentina has is that it is an inhabited territory: "If there were no people, it would be much simpler."
Barkman is open to a dialogue on the management of fishery resources in the South Atlantic, although she is suspicious of her interlocutors.
“We would engage in a conversation about the health of the ocean, with the consequent economic benefit, even with those who have invaded us and are still harassing us.
And it is not because we are in a situation of extreme need.
That is what good, responsible government does,” she noted.
The many activities planned in Argentina for the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the start of the war contrast with the prevailing silence in the Malvinas.
The 464 kilometers that separate the islands from the Argentine coast —compared to the 13,000 that are far from the United Kingdom— today seem like an insurmountable distance.
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