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Aug. 18--OLIVA, Argentina -- Oliva's outdoor museum, dedicated to those who died in the 1982 Falklands War with Britain, captures the mixed feelings Argentines have toward the South Atlantic islands they call the Malvinas.
Inaugurated more than six years ago, the museum remains little more than an earnest work in progress, a loose collection of military weaponry and patriotic sentiments.
Argentines believe the islands, "watered with the young and brave blood from Argentines who loved their homeland," belong to them. But as the museum's listlessness shows, Argentina has other priorities.
That has not stopped President Nestor Kirchner from reviving Argentina's fight with Britain over the islands.
In appeals to the United Nations and in its dealings with the islanders themselves, Argentina is challenging London over who the Falklanders are and who has the right to rule them.
"The Malvinas should be a national objective of all Argentines, and through dialogue, diplomacy and peace we must recover them," Kirchner said earlier this year in a speech honoring the veterans of the war. "But dialogue, diplomacy and peace do not mean living with our heads bowed."
Official letters of protest from Argentine diplomats to their British counterparts have soared of late. And in June, Kirchner created a commission of legislators and academics to examine the "Malvinas question."
"The goal is not to argue or to escalate the verbal conflict, but to incorporate viewpoints and multiply the scenarios," said Jorge Arguello, the pro-Kirchner congressman who heads the commission. But the panel's charge was widely seen as simpler: Build Argentina's case and then sell it abroad.
Issue: Fishing licenses
Most recently, Argentina objected to the Falklands government's granting of 25-year licenses to companies wishing to fish its waters. Buenos Aires said the action violated a 1990 agreement with Britain that restored diplomatic ties.
The two nations had broken relations after Argentina's crumbling military government invaded the islands in April 1982. Britain retook the islands militarily, leaving 255 British and at least 649 Argentine soldiers and sailors dead.
Britain's Foreign Office has warned Argentina that the question of sovereignty was off the table unless the nearly 3,000 residents of the Falklands wanted to discuss a change.
So far, Falklands officials say, few islanders want to.
Falklands officials say Argentina is trying to use the threat of economic sanctions to bully international companies into not doing business with the islands.
"Pressure will prove utterly counterproductive," Falklands Gov. Howard Pearce said in comments directed at the Argentine government. "If your aim . . . is to do damage to the islands' economy and to put pressure on the islanders to agree to negotiations on sovereignty, it is bound to fail."
"Falkland Islanders are united in their wish to remain British," said Pearce, whose term as governor ended Aug. 4. Kirchner has been keen on the Falklands issue going back to his days as governor of Santa Cruz province, which sits on the South Atlantic coast about 300 miles from the islands.
But the economic stakes have grown since Kirchner became president in 2003. The fishing industry, particularly the catches of squid, has become tremendously lucrative. And foreign oil companies are exploring the waters around the islands, optimistic that rich stocks of hydrocarbons rest below.
Islanders are living well
All this has helped raise the average islander's standard of living to that enjoyed in some European Union countries, far higher than that in Argentina.
Kirchner's critics say politics are driving some of his moves. The president excoriates the military regime that started the 1982 war in what most Argentines consider a last-gasp effort to hold on to power. But Kirchner also scores points with voters by emphasizing Argentine independence.
"Next year's presidential election coincides with the 25th anniversary of the war," said Rosendo Fraga, a Buenos Aires political analyst. "Given the nationalist turn that Argentine public opinion has taken since the crisis of 2001-2002, the government is keeping this in mind as part of its style of permanent campaigning."
Opposition politicians do not challenge Kirchner on Argentina's claim to the islands. But they question his timing. And they question his methods.
"This government has a policy of permanent confrontation, both inside the country towards Argentine society and outside, whether it is toward Finland or Chile or Uruguay or Great Britain," said Diego Ramiro Guelar, secretary of international relations for an opposition party. "We have to defend our sovereign rights over the Malvinas, but we need to do this peacefully and without tension."
cmcmahon@tribune.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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