A Uruguayan Historian says "Legally, Falklands are Uruguayan "
A book signed by a Uruguayan and Argentine states something that still would be taken as a joke: the possibility that Uruguay can lay claim to the islands that Argentina still claims to England
Galtieri, semi borracho, haranguing the masses from the balcony of the Casa Rosada in front of Plaza de Mayo; the faces of beardless soldiers Chaco, Formosa y Jujuy, leaving for the unknown (some would not return); Margaret Thatcher waving at aircraft; los Themis Gurkas nepal, tracer bullets; Belgrano sinking in the icy waters; the surrender of General Menendez; the fall of the dictatorship; Alfonsín hands together; the goal with the hand of Maradona to English, other historic goal, dribbling to the Queen ...
Imagine the reader that for a moment all those images recorded on the retina and in the collective memory of the Río de la Plata did not exist, that will flutter in the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic cold wind for decades the Uruguayan flag. How? Yes, yes, we know that very well: the blue stripes on a white field and sun in the corner, one whose shadow seeking the brave at death.
In the long controversy between Argentina and the UK over possession of the Falkland Islands, Few have noted the possible role that can have as valid Claimant Uruguay southern archipelago. Within Uruguayan historians and intellectuals who were interested in the subject over the decades, emphasizes the solitary figure of Eugene Little Munoz.
Now, the book of historical research Las Malvinas, Are they Uruguayan? (Editorial Botella al Mar, $350), authored by Uruguayan architect John Ackermann and Argentine engineer Alfredo Villegas Oromí, sheds light on an issue that has been addressed only obliquely and almost jokingly (see box) in the Uruguayan international agenda: the argument of how the Falklands could be liable to claims by the Uruguayan State. The book was launched last Wednesday in Punta del Este, before an audience of Uruguayan and Argentine.
The Possibility of an Island
The basis of the argument Ackermann and Villegas focuses on the legal possession was the military port of Montevideo in the mid eighteenth century on the Falkland Islands, the island of Tierra del Fuego and the Patagonian coast. Even the island of Fernando Poo, casi across Africa.
"La corona Spanish tennis three naval apostaderos in America, desde donde dominaba las los mares, islands and coasts. One was in Lima, the second was in Cuba and the third was Montevideo ", Ackermann explained to The Observer.
On the Argentine claim, Villegas argues that national sovereignty is never called in the act. "In 1820, when the Argentine dealer Luis Vernet arrives in the Falklands their motives are economic, no sovereignty. There was a huge institutional chaos and never was a Possession ", says.
From 1833, the British established their rule over the Falklands, but throughout the nineteenth century the ties between Uruguay and the Falklands were very large. The businessman Samuel anglouruguayo Lafone bought almost half of the islands, a region known today as Lafonia, where he raised sheep and where gauchos led Eastern bequeathed a lot of Spanish words into English kelpers.
Then, many islanders studied in schools in Montevideo and treated in British hospital. To date, Islanders maintain a loving relationship with Montevideo. The undersigned was in 2011 Falklands and it found first hand.
A treaty forgotten
In 1841, Spain and Uruguay signed a particular treaty. "It is a treaty that almost nobody remembers. In this document, Spain cedes the authority had the colony. Seventeen years later, Spain does the same with Argentina, but I could not give him what he had already. That is already a very strong argument in favor of Uruguay ", explica Ackermann.
"If that was not lapidary, in 1972, when the Antarctic Treaty was signed, is signed Uruguayan Senate first and then in the Argentine Senate. The base of the firm is trying to 1841. When Argentine lawmakers signed, were recognizing that treaty. It looks they did not read what they were signing ", Villegas stressed. "Legally, correspond to the nosotros ", Remata Ackermann. "For me, I'm Argentinian, was hard to realize this ", reflects Villegas.
The authors propose some assumptions explicit to the facts in the book. Uruguay does not claim that nothing, which is entitled. That Uruguay initiate discussions with England and / or with the Islanders. That the claim of Argentina-Uruguay British cosovereignty can somehow mediate. O incluso, these arguments Uruguayan sovereignty over the Malvinas are used as leverage to Argentina meets the Martin Garcia channel dredging.
Among many other, on this issue is simple and huge floating question: Why never claimed the islands Uruguay? "We have not discovered anything. Just delve into documents that already existed ", the authors conclude.
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