4th January 2013
The Sun told Argentina to keep their "hands off" the Falklands in a direct response to President Fernández's advert in UK newspapers.
Since the war of 1982, the 3,000 people who live in the remote Falkland Islands have replaced traditional colonial rule with their own autonomous government, and become wealthy from the sale of fishing licences. Now oil has been discovered, and it promises almost unimaginable wealth. Money has already transformed this tiny society – not always for the better. But home-grown challenges are as nothing compared to the threat from their neighbour, Argentina.
The oil discoveries have fuelled Argentina’s ambitions to take the Islands that they believe were stolen from them almost 180 years ago. Buenos Aires is making the ‘Malvinas’ a regional issue involving other South American countries, and has established an economic blockade of the Islands, virtually cutting them off from the continent. It is a policy they say they will continue until London agrees to discuss a transition to Argentine rule. In response, the Prime Minister has stated that Britain will support the Islanders’ right to remain British.
These factors are analysed by Falkland's historian, Graham Bound in his latest book Fortress Falklands, which provides a clear understanding of the Falklands conflict.
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