The Argentine government this Saturday “categorically” rejected the terms of a contest organized by the British embassy in the country that aims to select university students to pay for a trip to the Malvinas Islands.
“The contest is presented under an incorrect motto that seeks to designate these islands as a separate territory of the Argentine Republic and under an illegitimate toponym, in contradiction with the national position regarding the issue of the Malvinas Islands and which is reflected in the National Constitution“, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Ministry of Foreign Relations, in charge of Santiago Cafiero, expressed in the text that “it is clearly an activity that only seeks to reflect the British occupation of the Falkland Islandsan illegal situation that the Argentine Republic has protested in a permanent and indeclinable manner since 1833″.
“This is worth repudiating, because it is an improper action. It generated discomfort because unfortunately there is a history of this situation”William Carmona
“The Argentine Government once again reaffirms its sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime spaces that form an integral part of the Argentine Republic and invites the United Kingdom to comply with the United Nations mandate of resume negotiations in order to find a peaceful and lasting solution to the sovereignty dispute,” concludes the statement released this afternoon.
The announcement of the United Kingdom embassy in the country was made known through Instagram: “If you speak English and are a student at a university in Argentina, Brazil, Chile or Uruguay, this exchange opportunity is for you!” diplomatic representation in your account on that social network.
The invitation contains a flyer in English, in which the call is proposed as a “university competition” and explains that “four participants will be awarded, one student from Argentina, one from Brazil, one from Chile and one from Uruguay”.
According to the call, those interested “must make a video of up to one minute in English, answering the question: Why would I like to meet my neighbors in the Falkland Islands?” and adds that the students “with the best videos will win a trip to the Islands, where they will spend a week in the home of a local family, learning about the history, culture and society of the Falkland Islands”.
“It is not the first time they have done it, four or five years ago, former ambassador Mark Kent also proposed something similar and unfortunately students from public universities enrolled. For us it was a question of handing over sovereignty that hurts”Edgardo Esteban
Among the requirements, they ask for “advanced level of English” and “to have a valid Argentinian/Brazilian/Chilean/Uruguayan passport”.
The convocation of the British embassy it was also repudiated by the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmonawho, in statements to Télam, considered that it is “an absolutely unnecessary provocation.”
“This is worth repudiating, because it is an improper action,” Carmona described and assured that the secretariat “generated discomfort because unfortunately there is a history of this situation.”
The official explained that it is a methodology that “is repeated and has already been rejected by Argentina” and recalled that in other years “the same thing happened and on that occasion the councils of the different universities spoke out against it, as did the provinces. of Tierra del Fuego.
In September 2018, the British embassy had called for a similar contest, under the same slogan, a fact that was opportunely repudiated by the country’s higher education institutions.
Meanwhile, Carmona recalled that Argentina “to meet the interests of the islanders, launched scholarships for them to come to study here to achieve effective integration, but they were later unable because there were no flights.”
On the other hand, the secretary He also considered “improper” that the invitation is made in conjunction with “the illegitimate island government, by virtue of the fact that they are de facto authorities that Argentina does not recognize”.
For his part, the Director of the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands Museum, Edgardo Estebanalso added to the repudiation, told Télam that the act is “repudiable” and constitutes “part of the colonialist policy of the United Kingdom.”
“It is not the first time they have done it, four or five years ago, former ambassador Mark Kent also proposed something similar and unfortunately students from public universities enrolled. For us it was a question of handing over sovereignty that hurts”Stephen pointed out.
He also recalled that a group of ex-combatants made an agreement with the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UBA in its language laboratory, “to be able to offer the inhabitants of the islands who come to study language here, not only Spanish, but languages in general”.
About the contest launched, Esteban said that “it is part of that policy that the British have both in Argentina and in the region of imposing this situation of colonialism that hurts and hurts.”
“This is being done where the largest base in the Southern Hemisphere is located, where they are building a deep-water port, and they are doing so, already looking at what the dispute over Antarctica means and the largest reserve of drinking water there is. on the planet,” he concluded.
