Kirchner, who is doing her best to reduce her country into another version of her close ally Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, should know all about ‘decline’. After all, her once-proud nation remains heavily indebted to international creditors, including the Paris Club, which includes Britain. Under her reckless reign, inflation has soared, foreign capital has been flowing out of the country, and investor confidence has taken a massive hit. Her socialist policies are making her people significantly less free economically and threaten to turn Argentina into a pariah again in global markets. She is also taking a leaf out of Chavez’s book by cracking down on press freedom, a hugely worrying development for her nation’s independent media.
It is easy to see why Mrs. Kirchner is so keen to pick a fight with Britain: to deflect attention away from her staggering mismanagement of her own country ahead of October elections, when she will be seeking a second term. But her risky sabre-rattling will get her nowhere. If she is foolish enough to even attempt any kind of military action in the South Atlantic, her navy will inevitably end up at the bottom of the sea. And as the Prime Minister made very clear in the House of Commons, in response to an excellent question by Andrew Rosindell MP:
I would say this: as long as the Falkland Islands want to be sovereign British territory, they should remain sovereign British territory—full stop, end of story.
The sovereignty of the Falklands is non-negotiable, a message that Buenos Aires, as well as the rest of the Organisation of American States, should heed. To reinforce this message, London should strengthen its defences around the Falklands, and reverse planned defence cuts. The Falklands are just as British as any part of the mainland and will always remain so.
The delusional Mrs. Kirchner should focus on doing a better job of running her own country, instead of behaving like a mini-me version of the Venezuelan tyrant sitting in nearby Caracas. It is time for Kirchner and her increasingly desperate regime to back off and respect the sovereignty of the Falkland Islanders, who will never accept the boot of Argentina over British soil.