Posted on 02/10/2006 9:00:31 PM PST by Thunder90
VENEZUELA'S president has called on Tony Blair to return the Falkland Islands to Argentina, accusing the Prime Minister of being a "pawn" of Washington.
"We have to remember the Malvinas [the Argentine name for the islands]; how they were taken away from the Argentines. Mr Blair, return the Malvinas to Argentina," said president Hugo Chavez.
The socialist leader has long been the most vocal critic of US president George Bush, but Mr Blair was added to his list of "imperialists" after the Prime Minister said in parliament on Wednesday that if Mr Chavez wanted to be respected, he "should abide by the rules of the international community".
He responded: "Mr Tony Blair, you have no moral right to tell anyone to respect international laws, as you have shown no respect for them, aligning yourself with 'Mr Danger' [president Bush] and trampling on the people of Iraq. Do you think we still live in the times of the British Empire or colonialism?"
The Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner, has vowed that the islands will one day be part of Argentina, but has not aggressively pursued the issue since taking power in 2003.
A statement released by the Venezuelan presidential palace was more formal but equally critical of Britain, which it now lumped together with the US.
"Venezuela respects the rules of the international community: that is why it does not invade countries, it does not blockade countries, it does not sponsor torture, it does not protect international terrorists and it repudiates the existence of clandestine CIA jails in various European countries. Venezuela is not a genocidal country," it said.
Read Max Hastings' The Falklands War. Some Argie sentries woke up with their partners' throats cut. An old gurkha technique.
Nah, General Galtieri was just a good Paisan who knew how to both break communist cells (and skulls) and stand up to the Brits for Argentine sovereignty.
I think the Dominican Republic baseball team would not agree with that one.
Hugo Chavez is an enemy of the United States of America.
He will be swinging with Saddam if he continues to push the GOP's patience.
Make no mistake about it.
This little bastard is our enemy.
He must be taken out.
Free men will piss on his grave.
Stop buying Citgo. I have, and it hurts me to pass up some good gas and buy at some Mart-Mart place, getting that 91 or 92 octane "premium" they use to flush the pipelines at times, but it's worth it.
Sure- the "OIL" in Somalia, wait the pipeline in Afghanistan, oh no, I'm confused; we're talking about the oil in Iraq? The oil, oil, oil argument is dead- Find some other hidden imperialistic conspiracy theory.
Economically - the leading sector is offshore fishing, which in last 20 years has quickly grown into a substantial industry with a first catch value of approximately £200-300m. Tourism is fast growing and includes cruises (+35,000 visitors) and onshore segments and has huge potential. The agricultural sector (+580,000 sheep), like elsewhere in the world, faces pressing financial difficulties whilst seeking new, diversified sources of income to which “OIL” is not one of!
OIL-Shale-bla bla bla comprises near NOTHING of the economy, in fact, more than 20 years after the war “OIL” is not even significant enough to MENTION as an economic source of income for the islands <2%!
Besides some "HYPOTHETICAL" oil which is and will be to costly to explore (As in the US which we have the same situation) the Falklands really have no "OIL" besides in the minds of those who also said Vietnam was about Tin. But you probably can't remember that. I'm still trying to figure out what we were after in the Balkans? Rocks? Maybe they have big rocks we need? I heard we have a shortage of boulders! "No blood for boulders! get the US out of the Balkans!"
Chavez will continue being a turd, until someone wiggles the handle and flushes the bastard....
Semper Fi
Galtieri committed more that 2300 political executions ( typical leftist totalitarian authority figure, my way or else) made of 10,000 political arrests, and and is reposible the disappearance of 20,000 to 30,000 people. He was such a savy dictator, he caused inflation to run at 900%, I bet everyone was really dancing in the streets in those good ol' days...
He resigned in shame after the humiliating defeat and surrender during the Falkland war.
In the presidential election of Oct. 1983, Raúl Alfonsín, leader of the Radical Civic Union, handed the Peronist Party its first defeat since its founding. Growing unemployment and quadruple-digit inflation, however, led to a Peronist victory in the elections of May 1989. Alfonsín resigned a month later in the wake of riots over high food prices, in favor of the new Peronist president, Carlos Menem. In 1991, Menem promoted economic austerity measures that deregulated businesses and privatized state-owned industries. But beginning in Sept. 1998, eight years into Menem's two-term presidency, Argentina entered its worst recession in a decade. Menem's economic policies, tolerance of corruption, and pardoning of military leaders involved in the dirty war eventually lost him the support of the poor and the working class who had elected him.
In Dec. 1999 Fernando de la Rua became president. Despite the introduction of several tough economic austerity plans, by 2001 the recession slid into its third year. The IMF gave Argentina $13.7 billion in emergency aid in Jan. 2001 and $8 billion in Aug. 2001. The international help was not enough, however, and by the end of 2001, Argentina verged on economic collapse. Rioters protesting government austerity measures forced de la Rua to resign in Dec. 2001. Argentina then defaulted on its $155 billion foreign debt payments, the largest such default in history.
After more instability, Congress named Eduardo Duhalde president on Jan. 1, 2002. Duhalde soon announced an economic plan devaluing the Argentine peso, which had been pegged to the dollar for a decade. The devaluation plunged the banking industry into crisis and wiped out much of the savings of the middle class, plunging millions of Argentinians into poverty.
In July 2002, former junta leader Galtieri and 42 other military officers were arrested and charged with the torture and execution of 22 leftist guerrillas during Argentina's 7-year military dictatorship. In recent years, judges have found legal loopholes allowing them to circumvent the blanket amnesty laws passed in 1986 and 1987, which have allowed many accused of atrocities during the dirty war to walk free. In June 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that these amnesty laws were unconstitutional.
Peronist Néstor Kirchner, the former governor of Santa Cruz, became Argentina's president in May 2003, after former president Carlos Menem abandoned the race. Kirchner has vowed to aggressively reform the courts, police, and armed services and to prosecute perpetrators of the dirty war. Argentina's economy has been rebounding since its near collapse in 2001, with an impressive growth rate of about 8% since President Kirchner took office. In March 2005, Kirchner announced that the country's debt had been successfully restructured.
Yea Clemenza, the place just keeps getting better and better all the time.
But, it's all Bush's fault now. If at first you fail, then fail again and again, despite being bailed out time and time again by Americans, BLAME Americans. Yes, thats the ticket...
Nuke the crap hole.
He said he had never been that scared in all his life after the artillery and air hit around his position.
The funny thing is that he's big, happy guy that says the main thing the troops were worried about was not surrendering fast enough to avoid getting killed.
The other thing that they feared was upon hearing that a Gurkha regiment was going to land up from their position and that they wouldn't understand Spanish or English....and kill all of them before dawn. No white flags and sign language is hard to see at night.
We had a great laugh at his "war" stories.... He loves our country and works as a financial analyst. Life is funny..... especially when you get the low down from the other side.
Makes you wonder what some poor muzzy is thinking as a laser guided bomb blows away the building he's just about to walk into.....or he's walking along when his commander's head blows up and 1-2 seconds later he hears a gunshot....yikes!!!
***Does Hugo the Yugo remind anybody else of a pro wrestler who's entire act is to make the entire crowd hate him?***
Gorgeous George!
Galtieri was an anticommunist hero. He was NOT A PERONIST! The Junta who governed Argentina were ALLIES OF THE UNITED STATES. They KILLED COMMUNISTS, something the Brits never had the balls to do in Rhodesia and Kenya.
I wish I could slap you across the head for calling the Argentine junta "leftists." THEY WERE ONE OF THREE COUNTRIES IN THE HEMISPHERE WHO ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING ABOUT THE COMMUNISTS!
The leftist governments that succeeded the Junta were a disgrace.
The Malvinas issues is NOT a left/right issue. Both the Argentine right (the Junta) AND left (every government since 1983) saw/see it as an issue of national sovereignty, nothing more nothing less.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fk.html#Econ
Show me one source that states oil is pumped. All you hear is "hypothetical", "It is believed"........ more than 20 years after the war, OIL is no part of their economy. Better yet, show me a viable oil exploration effort that is being planned? Please,…….
Tell me how many links you want to show you that “OIL” makes up LESS THAN 2% of their GDP? Show me ONE source that states otherwise. All you will find is the same crap they said about Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and everywhere else a US or British soldiers foot touches the ground. Personally I think we have “magic boots”. After all, as soon as they touch the ground the “OIL” just begins to bubble up from the ground.
Britain will return The Falklands to Argentina, right after Chavez returns Venezuela to the Arawaks and Caribs, the occupants of the land prior to Spanish conquest.
Come to think of it, Argentina belongs to the Diaguita and the Guarani, So what claim do the Spanish bred Argentinians have on The Falklands in the first place?
right, Rafael Videla did that. The Argentine Commission for Human Rights, in Geneva, charged the junta with 2,300 political murders, over 10,000 political arrests, and the disappearance of 20,000 to 30,000 people.
Videla was deposed by Field Marshal Roberto Viola, who in turn was succeeded by Lt. Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri, who then tried to invade the Falklands.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick was right, we should have told Margaret Thatcher that she would be on her own and that we would not take a position on the Falklands. To say NOTHING of the fact that what she did was in violation of the Monroe Doctrine anyhow.
Unlike others on this site, while I admire the support the Poms have given us in the MidEast and in WWII, I don't slavishly worship the Brits, nor do I think of them as "brothers" anymore than the Taiwanese or Costa Ricans.
All of whom were Communists or supporters of the Monteneros. 99.9% of those folks who "disappeared" (usually into the Atlantic Ocean) got what they deserved after putting Argentina through hell in the 1960s/early 70s.
The Argentine Commission for Human Rights is a leftist organization run by the Argie equivalents of Jimmy Carter and Hillary Clinton.
He's an attention whore,
Birds of a feather....
That's why Cindy was there visiting him.
The only "potential oil" they have is tar sands, which isn't even as good as Alberta's. I think your right. It's all speculative, and nobody sure as hell wants to go spend any money there with that kook running the show. All he really has is a few oil well he stole. It can't support the economy, but Chavez, poor in math, seems to think it will.
Give Venezuela back to Spain, then. Loser.
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