Brexit, Gibraltar, The Hague: Is Argentina's position on the Falklands strengthened?

Let's start with a bit of history. The British Empire, founded as such at the end of the seventeenth century and which spread throughout the world in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, survives its dismemberment through the fourteen "territories of the 39 "overseas" of the United Kingdom. For the United Nations, ten of them are colonies. This characterization reinforces the position of countries claiming sovereignty over these territories.

In the Mediterranean, there are Acrotiri and Dhekelia, which are British "sovereign bases" on the island of Cyprus, with 14,000 inhabitants. The territory is claimed by the Cypriot government. At the other end of this sea is the rock of Gibraltar, with 28,875 inhabitants. It is south of the Iberian Peninsula, in the pbadage between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and is claimed by Spain.

The European Parliament, on the basis of the Brexit separation process, decided on 4 to recognize the Rock as a "British colony", thus giving reason to a central argument invoked by Spain.

Anguilla is located in the Caribbean Sea and is made up of a group of small islands with a population of 13,477 people. In the same area are the Cayman Islands, in northwestern Jamaica, with a population of 69,000. In this sea are also the British Virgin Islands, which constitute the archipelago of the Lesser Antilles, populated of 23 098 inhabitants. Montserrat, in the same group of islands, has 4,819 inhabitants.

In North America, in the Atlantic, are Bermuda, which includes 150 islands with 66,163 inhabitants. In the same ocean, north of Cuba, are the Turks and Kaikos Islands, populated by 30,600 inhabitants. In the Pacific Ocean, there is an overseas territory, the Pitcairn Islands, in Polynesia, with only 48 people.

The British territory of the Indian Ocean is composed of 70 islands, including the archipelagos of Chagos, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches Islands, the largest being Diego García. They are populated by 3,500 people. The first archipelago is claimed by Mauritius, an African state that was also a British colony.

In the sixties of the twentieth century, the United Kingdom gave up its independence to this country, while keeping the Chagos Islands as an English dependency. At the request of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decided on 26 February this year that this archipelago should be part of Mauritius, whose population had previously been transferred by the British authorities to the island of Diego. Garcia, to build a US military base. The decision is not binding, but has political effects and has been rejected by the British government.

Santa Elena, Ascension and Tristán de Acuña are found in the South Atlantic, west of Africa. It has a strategic value as a naval and air supply base, used during the conflict in the Malvinas, with a population of 6,563.

Further south of this ocean are South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. They only have 26 inhabitants and are claimed by Argentina. In this region are also the Falkland Islands, populated by 2,967 inhabitants, also claimed by Argentina and with an area of ​​12,713 square kilometers. Further south, the British Antarctic Territory, with 200 inhabitants and 1,709,400 square kilometers. It is a territory in conflict with Argentina and Chile, which claim sovereignty over the same territory.

Argentina is one of the fourteen British overseas territories that raise controversy over three of them.

But in terms of size, the Antarctic territory claimed by the United Kingdom represents 98% of the area of ​​the 14 and the Malvinas in turn exceed the remaining 12 regions. From the military point of view, the Falklands possess the most important military base of the 14.

Placed in this context, the decision of the International Court of Justice in favor of Mauritius in the case of the Chagos Archipelago claim and the resolution of the European Parliament recognizing the colonial status to the Rock of Gibraltar – – these are antecedents that may favor Argentine policy aimed at recovering sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands.

The first, because he maintains that a country can not be divided against his will. The second because it weakens the British position, which is rejected each year by the United Nations Decolonization Committee.

This is not a decisive context, but arguments that reinforce Argentina's position that, without abandoning dialogue and relations with the islanders, it is necessary to maintain a patient but permanent policy to achieve the sovereignty of the islands. .

The author is a political badyst and director of the Center for Studies on Trade Unions for the new majority.