Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
The Current

Tension still looms over who owns the Falkland Islands

And 30 years after the war over the Falkland Islands, Britain and Argentina are eyeing each other through a fog of painful and still bitter history. Prince William is already there on a Search and Rescue Posting ... a provocation or merely coincidence ? The British destroyer with the curiously symbolic name, HMS Dauntless is on its way and Argentina's...
CBC Radio ·
And 30 years after the war over the Falkland Islands, Britain and Argentina are eyeing each other through a fog of painful and still bitter history. Prince William is already there on a Search and Rescue Posting ... a provocation or merely coincidence ? The British destroyer with the curiously symbolic name, HMS Dauntless is on its way and Argentina's President is neither amused nor silent. Today, we're heading to The Falklands or depending on your politics ... The Malvinas, where for Britain and Argentina, the issue is ownership and perhaps also ... oil.

Listen: (Pop-up)

Three of The Current

Tension still looms over who owns the Falkland Islands - Dick Sawle

We started this segment with a clip from Argentine President Christina Kirchner two weeks ago on the bad blood between her country and Britain over the Falkland Islands. The windswept Island off the coast of Argentina are known as The Malvinas by most countries in Latin America.

And it was the scene of a short and bloody war between Argentina and Britain thirty years ago... A war that killed 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel. Since that time, the anger always seems ready to detonate over the Islands and their potentially lucrative oil and fish resources.

Dick Sawle is watching the escalation between London and Buenos Aires with great interest. He is a member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Assembly and we reached him in the Falkland's capital Stanley.

Tension still looms over who owns the Falkland Islands - Miguel Savage

Miguel Savage knows what it's like to shelter from the cold Falkland drizzle and dodge British hot iron. He was was conscripted into the Argentine military to fight on the islands. He was in Venado Tuerto which is about 400 kilometers east of Buenos Aires.

Tension still looms over who owns the Falkland Islands - Simon Winchester

Thirty-years ago the Senior features writer for The Sunday Times of London became a part of the unfolding drama in the Falklands. Simon Winchester was captured by Argentine troops and spent three months in prison on suspicion that he was a British spy. He has since written several international best-sellers. He wrote about his months in captivity in Prison Diary Argentina: A Falklands Story. And last month he wrote a controversial opinion piece for The London Times about the dispute. Simon Winchester joined us from Western Massachusetts.

This half-hour segment was produced by The Current's Liz Hoath and Howard Goldenthal.

Related Links:

Last Word - The voice on the Falkland Islands

We've been talking today about the anger over the Falkland Islands. On today's Last Word, The Voice has been listening to the drums and wonders what it would mean for this country.


Other segments from today's show:

More from this episode