Las Malvinas are more than 7900 miles from London. On the other hand, 1180 miles separate Buenos Aires from the Falklands Islands. At its closest point Argentina is around 300 miles from the islands' capital, Port Stanley. The little town and its surroundings, meanwhile, house fewer than 2900 proud British citizens. The territory they call home is not, however, a part of the United Kingdom.
Are the islands rightfully Argentinian, then? The answer depends on how much history you can swallow, your views on colonialism versus self-determination, and the value you place on an estimated 60 billion barrels of oil. When the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges dismissed the 1982 Falklands war between his country and Britain as "two bald men fighting over a comb", that vast reservoir of wealth had not been discovered.
Last week, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's president, dispatched a furious letter to David Cameron via adverts in London newspapers and once again demanded the return of her country's comb. She made no mention of oil. Instead, she invoked the 180th anniversary of the day – January 3, 1833 – Argentina was "forcibly stripped of the Malvinas Islands" in "a blatant ...
Are the islands rightfully Argentinian, then? The answer depends on how much history you can swallow, your views on colonialism versus self-determination, and the value you place on an estimated 60 billion barrels of oil. When the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges dismissed the 1982 Falklands war between his country and Britain as "two bald men fighting over a comb", that vast reservoir of wealth had not been discovered.
Last week, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina's president, dispatched a furious letter to David Cameron via adverts in London newspapers and once again demanded the return of her country's comb. She made no mention of oil. Instead, she invoked the 180th anniversary of the day – January 3, 1833 – Argentina was "forcibly stripped of the Malvinas Islands" in "a blatant ...
