For those who may have been distracted by the Republican nomination race, the first potentially armed conflict since the Thatcher years between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands – known by Latin Americans as the Malvinas – is brewing. Unfortunately, according to columnist Gilson Caroni Filho of Brazil’s Opera Mundi, the United States, even if it doesn’t recognize British sovereignty over the Falklands, is implicated.
For Opera Mundi, Gilson Caroni Filho writes in part:
The European Union’s decision to recognize the Malvinas Islands as its territory, endorsing the warlike positions of British Prime Minister David Cameron – who approved a plan to increase the military contingents on the islands – serves to rekindle a historical fact that must never be forgotten: the tragedy of the Latin American countries, with their aberrant background of exploitation, misery and de-culturation, has one and only one set of enemies – European neo-colonialism and U.S. imperialism.
The self-determination of the Kelpers [Falkland Islanders], the central argument used by Thatcher and Cameron, encompasses a contradiction that is difficult to overcome. How can they claim British citizenship and the right to self-determination? What we have, in fact, is a permanent colonial occupation dressed up as “independence.” There is no more objective condition for the oppressed to recall a memory that was manufactured by the oppressor.
Remember that if 30 years ago, the countries of Latin American went far beyond the predictable in their support of Argentine rights, not giving one meter of territory for British military aircraft to refuel, now the resistance would be much more intense, with the region structured into communities like UNASUR [Union of South American Nations] and CELAC [Community of Latin American and Caribbean States]. A military venture would impose political costs much more profound than its creators can imagine.
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