A political civil war has erupted about a “new era” for the Falkland Islands, announced by UK foreign secretary David Lammy and his Argentine counterpart.
Lammy and his Argentina counterpart Diana Mondino made a statement in late September setting out steps that they said would “enable progress towards a more ambitious agenda for cooperation.”
But the agreement has sparked total fury among opposition political leaders in the country, who say that it means conceding certain rights and that the statement did not go through the correct channels for sign-off.
Now, impeachment has been requested for Mondino over the agreements with England.
Opposition deputies from Unión por la Patria (UxP) presented a request for a political trial against Mondino on Wednesday, October 16, reports Tiempo Argentino.
The legislators claim these agreements “offer unacceptable concessions in the historical claim for the recovery of the islands”.
The statement said: “They [Lammy and Mondino] also agreed on the need to take concrete steps in the area of fisheries conservation and towards improved connectivity, according to the agreements reached in 2018, including the resumption of the weekly Sao Paulo flight to the Islands that stopped once a month in Cordoba.”
Regarding the Lammy/Mondino statement, Santa Fe province deputy Eduardo Toniolli explained that Mondino “intends to assume roles that belong to the legislative power, signing international agreements without going through Congress.”
He added: “We all understand that if this went through Congress, it would not have enough votes to be approved.”
The Falkland Islands are a British overseas territory in the southwest Atlantic Ocean over which Argentina has long claimed sovereignty.
Argentina invaded in 1982 in a bid to reclaim what it says is its sovereignty. It said it had inherited the Falkland Islands from Spain in the 1800s.
A war lasting 74 days ensued. There were 655 Argentinian, 255 British and three Falkland deaths before British forces regained control on June 14 1982.