We cannot imagine how Chancellor Diana Mondino would have managed the Ministry of Economy if she had been entrusted with that portfolio instead of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Worship. Nothing about numbers and less about compliance with obligations, contracts and laws, and, despite the worldly origin of her surname and her fluent English, it does not seem that this lady is qualified to manage a Ministry that should represent Argentine relations and interests in the world. “English” without content or with content contrary to Argentine interests lacks total effectiveness. It would be enough with Google Translate or any Artificial Intelligence application if the issue were only numbers or consulting projects for third parties; but not, to represent a Sovereign Nation. The Foreign Ministry's handling of the Malvinas issue would make the recently commemorated Argentine independence of 1816 meaningless.
We will not refer here to the terrible statements of the government regarding the presidents of the main countries importing Argentine products. Question, that they do not sympathize with the kind treatment that the Chancellor gives to “the Perfidious Albion” , despite the very serious damage that it inflicts on Argentine sovereignty; to international trade of our products; to the national economy; to the regional development of Patagonia; to employment and the marine and fishing ecosystem, with the arrogant occupation of our archipelagos and seas and, appropriating our fishing and hydrocarbon resources.
Worrying about the honesty of the wife of the Prime Minister of the Spanish government - a State that recognized the Argentine sovereignty of the Malvinas - and not demanding that their Galician vessels stop fishing illegally in the Malvinas associated with the British is inadmissible, since they break our autonomy; Argentine legal regulations and United Nations Res. 31/49, while Argentina grants capture permits to national companies with Spanish capital to fish in the Argentine continental maritime jurisdiction.
By the way, fighting with China and Brazil, which together with Spain are the main buyers of fishing products, does not seem to have any other basis than ideological one, strikingly in a government that describes itself as “anarcho-capitalist.”
Now, illegal fishing by Taiwanese, Korean and Spanish-British vessels of Argentine resources in Argentine waters of the Malvinas represents 60% of the income of the islanders, for a reason, already in 2012, the then British director of fisheries in the John Barton Islands, said: “without fishing we would not have survived” (El Cronista, 3/14/12). “ Working together,” as the Chancellor says, would be making the same mistake made by Argentina in 1988 in the preludes to the Madrid Agreements, where “ talking about fishing” was ruled out.
In 1848 Sir William Molesworth, who in 1855 would be Secretary of State for the Colonies of the United Kingdom, said: « In the miserable Malvinas Islands, wheat does not grow, trees do not grow, they are blown down by the winds; Since 1841 they cost us 35 thousand pounds, without return or benefit. Decidedly, I am of the opinion that this useless possession should be returned, of course, to the Government of Buenos Aires, which rightly demands it . 128 years would pass and , on July 21, 1976, through Lord Shackleton's Report, the British realized that the wealth was in the sea and not in the Islands ; issue, that the Argentine rulers - like the Chancellor - continue not to understand and also ignore that the Argentine islands are not defended by the British because of the three thousand islanders who inhabit them, but because they are located in the southern part of the South Atlantic with projection to Antarctica and control of the Pacific and Indian oceans of superlative geopolitical value, compared to the vulnerability of the Panama Canal. Furthermore, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have already declared that fishing is a matter of national security, while the Argentine Foreign Ministry and Fisheries authorities have been unable to control the illegal fishing that occurs. It has been carried out since 1976 in the Southwest Atlantic by the Chinese, Taiwanese, Koreans and Spanish-British. From the waters of the Malvinas alone, foreign vessels annually extract 250,000 tons of fishing products for a value equivalent to 50% of the total annual Argentine exports of these species and, as is public knowledge, the oil exploitation of “a deposit will be added with verifiable reserves of 580 million barrels of oil” (Malvinas Agenda, 6/21/24) .
In this scenario, in the imagination of the Chancellor in a recent conference at the Rotary Club of Buenos Aires, she compared Malvinas with “an apartment” in which Argentina is the owner and the British are tenants and “some will think they are squatters”, obviously excluding themselves from this last qualification. Also stating that “if a company operates in the islands it cannot operate in Argentina and thus a lot of issues where we have presented complaints to neighboring countries for allowing a plane to land that then continued to the Malvinas. That's over with us. We want to have a reasonable relationship, the aggressiveness with us is over. What we want to do is maintain a relationship where we can work together .”
These manifestations of Mondino are sincerely imperial and esoteric. The Chancellor does not have omnivorous power, Argentine policy on the Malvinas issue is determined in the First Transitory Provision of the National Constitution and effectively the companies that directly or indirectly operate in the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich and the corresponding waters, They cannot do so on the national continent due to laws 24,543; 24,922; 26,386; 26,659 and 27,564 among others, all approved by the National Congress and therefore their sayings and actions must comply with the popular mandate. And in addition to that, it should be sanctioning every fishing vessel that operates in the Malvinas.
The British in the Malvinas are not tenants. They do not have a rental contract signed by Argentina and are manifestly illegal occupiers who also violate United Nations Res. 31/49 by advancing from 1982 to date in the occupation of new Argentine maritime territories and exploiting, as we have said, natural resources. Argentines, with the damages already described.
“The British are not tenants of the Islands, Mrs. Mondino, perhaps it is in their plans and it was a failed act. In any case, we have been unable to get the British out of the comfort zone, with some strategy where “working together” (sic) is not the option, but quite the opposite.
We imagine the Chancellor asking the Minister of Security to vacate the Chancellery building if it were occupied by a group of ambassadors and ministers who demand the application of the income tax on their salaries or, requiring vacancy by the public force. of their house if it were occupied by a homeless group that, in order to support themselves, also rented some of the “circumstantially” free rooms. The British are not tenants of the Islands Mrs. Mondino, perhaps it is in their plans and it was a failed act.
In any case, we have been unable to get the British out of the comfort zone, with some strategy where “working together” (sic) is not the option, but quite the opposite, adjusting the procedures and declarations to current legislation and extreme ingenuity and capabilities to achieve what has not been achieved to date.
The “reasonable relationship” that the minister refers to is of such generality and imprecision and, her reference to contributions that Argentina unilaterally made in past times without any compensation from the British, has allowed the British to reach this state. of things and, in this sense, we suggest you take note of reality, because recklessly stating that "Today there are a lot of activities, especially in hydrocarbons and fishing, that none of us do, neither them nor us" , is to completely ignore the occupation of our territories and the exploitation of our resources, which we have briefly described.
The Ministry is of Foreign Affairs and this requires understanding, as the writer, novelist, playwright and graduate in Political Sciences and Economic Sciences Antonio Gala (1930-2023) said, “politics cannot be at the service of the economy”, but rather everything contrary.
Dr. César Augusto Lerena
Expert in South Atlantic and Fisheries – Former Secretary of State
President of the Agustina Lerena Foundation
President Center for Studies for Latin American Fisheries (CESPEL)
July 25, 2024
