Political battling over the Falklands is about oil not people!

The Falklands were settled by British in the 1700’s. At the time Stanley Harbour was a place of safety for ships beaten up rounding Cape Horn. There are wrecks of ships found irreparable in that era, still rotting and rusting in the harbour. Being 300 hundred miles off Argentina, the country has wanted to take the Falklands, which they call ‘los Islas Malvinas’ into their control.

In 1982, Argentina was run by a brutal military junta. Having met Argentines who lived there in that time, I know stories of how people suspected of political dissent were tied up, put in helicopters and dropped 50 miles out in the Atlantic to drown. Others were savagely beaten and shot. The junta, under General Galtieri was suffering unpopularity and outright dissent in much the same way as you see in Syria today.

He decided to get the country behind him by invading the Falklands. Briefly he was extremely popular – until the UK sent a fleet out and threw them off the islands. A short, brutal fight ensued, with hundreds of soldiers dying on both sides. Essentially it was a case of professional soldiers and Special Forces fighting conscripts. Propaganda inflicted fear too – rumours that the Ghurkhas ate people were held in such belief that when two appeared on a ridge to see where a group of Argentines were, they ran for their lives. The war was finely balanced at times – the Royal Navy lost several ships, including two troop ships in Bluff Cove with the loss of a large number of soldiers disembarking at the time.  Invading in April 1982, Argentina surrendered in June.

Soon after, Galtieri was deposed and hanged. British Intelligence services put an embargo on arms sales to the country – unable to maintain its fleet and forces, so it couldn’t try anything again under the junta. Argentina went on to become a safe, democratic country. While not rich, it is certainly ‘middle class’ as countries go.

Lately there have been calls by the current President of Argentina, Cristina Kirchener, to reclaim the Malvinas through political means. Prime Minister Cameron of the UK has responded, dressing it in ‘democracy’ by saying that if the islanders want to transfer their loyalty to Argentina then he would be happy to let them. Being mostly sheep farmers descended from people of North Wales, the obvious answer is that they are British!

Cameron has stronger ties to the islands than a couple of thousand sheep farmers. There is oil under them there hills! If I was told this in 1986 as a youngster, then I do wonder to what extent Margaret Thatcher knew the same 4 years before? Estimates are that as much as 60 billion barrels could be exploited from wells there – similar to the size of UK North Sea deposits found in the 1960’s that are now depleted.  

More wars have been fought over mineral wealth than pure glory in recent times. I can’t believe Britain and France won’t get preferential oil deals from Libya after our intervention, again dressed as ‘democracy’. Given the weaknesses of our current Royal Navy fleet due to government cuts (often labelled as barmy given this particular threat in the South Atlantic) and increased wealth of Argentina, a fight for the land may be that more difficult. But nothing gets a politician so keen for a fight as 60 billion barrels of oil!