A few days ago, a television advert hit the television sets everywhere in Argentina.
It showed an athlete from that country, my country, training for London 2012 in the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands).
Then a voice said “to take part in the Olympics in British soil, we are training in Argentinean soil”
The Falklands, have been in diplomatic dispute since 1833. Although they are the biggest 2 islands in the area, the whole territorial claim by Argentina involves some 200 islands in the region.
Throughout history, the region had many “owners”, and different names.
The first partial inhabitants were indigenous Argentinean tribe called Patagones.
There is archeological evidence that they at least were there several times, as many pots, canoes and other objects typical of the Patagones have been found on the Islands.
However when the first European explorers arrived, they were deserted and empty.
The Spanish seamen Esteban Gomez (1520) Sotomayor y Camargo (both before 1540) are believed to be the first from the old continent to discover the archipelago composed of 200 Islands (including the Malvinas/Falklands)
In 1592 (John Davis) and 1594 (Richard Hawkins) also visited the area.
The first time that the region appeared in any map was after 1600 when the Dutch sailor Sebald de Weert sent the information to Holland and they included them as belonging to them, under the name of “Sebald Islands”.
In 1690, the Englishman John Strong, navigated the space between the two main Islands, and decided to call it the “Falkland Straight”, in honour of Anthony Cary the fifth Viscount of Falkland who had financed his journey.
From that day on, many British vessels visited the place, but never inhabited or claimed it.
Now these trips generated the anger of Spain, who had claimed the islands as part of their Kingdom.
A few battles began between the navies of these two countries with no clear winner.
As if all this wasn’t enough, in 1764 the French Count Louis Antoine de Bougainville founded Port Louis in Isla Soledad (East Falkland).
The Spanish protest again, and the French agree to vacate the Islands and recognise Spanish sovereignty of all 200 islands.
The British docked on another one of the Islands (Isla Trinidad/Saunders Island) and founded Port Egmont there.
Then Spain and Britain had a few meetings and in what it was called the Nutka (Nutca) treaty, the British recognised Spanish ownership of all the 200 Islands in the area, in exchange for some other territories in the North Pacific off the cost of Canada.
When the Spanish were finally defeated by the different South American armies, and left the area, all the territories they once owned, started to become the countries we know today.
In 1820 Argentina took control of the Islands, and named Luis Maria Vernet as the Governor.
In 1833 the British frigate HMS Clio under Captain James Onslow, arrived to the Malvinas (Falklands) and informed the local authorities that he was there to claim the area for the King of his country.
As they were in no condition to defend themselves against this threat, they had to surrender and were told to leave.
It is there, where this conflict began. There is no question about who the Archipelago belongs to, it is clearly Argentinean.
By definition what Onslow and Britain did in 1833 is colonialism, but I prefer to call it playground bullying. They picked on someone who could not defend themselves against them and removed them from their land.
At that stage in history the British government was not very concerned about the “autodetermination” of the islanders, they just told them to go somewhere else.
Finally in 1982, political reasons meant the Junta was losing power in Argentina, and they needed to do something to rally the country behind them and gain support.
The only thing that came to mind was to “peacefully” invade the Islands and regain control over them.
The thought behind it was “they are to far from GB, they will not come”. The decision proved to be extremely wrong, as Margaret Thatcher was going through a rough patch and winning this war was her salvation too.
Conditions once again were very unequal (but this time the consequences Argentina paid by going to war, were their own doing), and a few months later Britain was victorious and regained control of the Islands.
Since that moment all the Islanders have been given full British citizenship.
In diplomatic and political laws, what matters is who the disputed area really belongs to, and not what the inhabitants wish to be.
So the claim that the UK “wishes to respect the autodetermination of the Islanders” does not cut it at all in diplomatic forums.
The problem does not get resolved, because argentina does not have an army capable of threatening that of Great Britain, which makes it very easy for the Europeans to point blank refuse to sit and discuss the issue peacefully.
History lesson over, and back to the advert, for the South American government to have done something as aggressive, and provocative as that, is totally unacceptable.
They knew from the beginning that what they were doing was extremely bad, so they lied from the start to the Falklands (Malvinas) authorities.
The spot was filmed in March, when there was a marathon in the Islands, so they have asked permission to send teams to take part and record their time in there.
From then on the rest is what they showed us on TV.
I know that the Olympic games have been used for political reasons in the past, and it is a shame that in the 21st century we are still committing the same mistakes as we did in the past.
There are forums and places were to present political claims, and for the other party to defend their own.
They are certainly not at the Olympics. Put at risk years of hard work by the athletes that dream to take part, is selfish, ill advised and unfair.
If I was part of the UK government or Olympic committee, I would be considering banning Argentina from taking part. My country has crossed a line that should have not been crossed, and in my opinion deserved to be punished for it.
In every negotiation we need to part from the principle that many British soldiers have died or been permanently injured during the 1982 war, and they deserved to be treated with respect as well, no matter who is right and who is wrong.
It was distasteful, stupid and disrespectful to all to have shown, and continuing showing that advert and to keep the Olympic Games and politics mixed up.
Please comment, but with respect and sensitivity.