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"SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR"

The true purpose of UK to carry out the Falklands islands War in 1982 and the perpetual stillness of the Argentine government

By Dany Smith

For those who have studied a little British political mentality knows that their governments do not take a step without a specific goal. When in 1982 Argentina was launched to recover the Falkland Islands and the surrounding archipelago in the South Atlantic, the armed forces of his gracious majesty were in a critical budget level time and were on the table a process by which the neoliberal administration Prime Minister Margaret Thacher extolled the withdrawal of several naval units in its fleet. As they say recurrently in Argentina "was coming budget cuts" so the chances of a military campaign in another continent besides unthinkable seemed impossible for the British military.

But the admiralty and even those closely related to the political and royal elite were unaware of what was brewing in Buenos Aires, it is very hard to believe. In contrast to this, according to intelligence sources entrenched in the Argentina capital remitted reports of intense movements in the States over the three forces and major military units in the country. But despite this, London would not move a finger appearances and not because he believed Argentines unable to start a military operation like that then was on April 2. Quite the opposite, in Westminster and in the Foreign Office waited patiently for the military government in Buenos Aires the bait and if they did, would force him to do so.

What was the reason hiding up his sleeve power instituted in London? Well, it was nothing more nor less than the forecast to get in about twenty to thirty years of that date, major energy resources under the subsoil of the islands and extensive continental shelf around them and even getting as look control large water areas of the Patagonian coast. To make matters worse, the British political timing could not be more propitious. With the rising unpopularity of Thacher and the real possibility of losing the elections were close, London juice its most dangerous card at the cost of his own men.

 But the cause was worth the sacrifice. Studies prospecting companies "Shell" and "British Petroleum" made in the late seventies threw the riches hidden deep in the area were widely viable but to do so the possibility of unrestricted access was necessary and guaranteed that allow work without interference from the continent. For this purpose the projections were realistic and profits for London would not be automatic nor easy to achieve. In calculations adjusted to reality analysts that time, they noted that lucky and be able to obtain the optimal political conditions for smooth movement, Britain could be exploiting oil wells and gas in thirty years. In view of the events and the current situation on the islands and surrounding waters predictions could not be more accurate.

The circumstances of that time did London and especially their oil companies were put to develop a plan that expand their expectations of oil production amid a sharp fall in prices, driven by the OPEC crisis in 1973 made it clear that the Western powers could become the overnight, un served by the formation of cartels of producer countries. In response, the British oil began to study new routes and new deposits that stay away from those dangers for their own consumption.

Although the most important analysts of the time, as the US Admiral Harry Train considered the oil route would remain the Atlantic by the passage at the tip of Africa Cape of Good Hope, the British came studying from mid decade of the sixties and seventies, the geological composition of Patagonia and subsoil which extends to the Falklands with a view to establishing mining potential in the region. For this purpose and under various ruses, he entered the country and even cooperation with the Argentine government of the time, undertook a detailed study of the quality and characteristics of the Patagonian land without noticing Argentine appearances -in their true intentions.

 Obviously masquerading as purely scientific activities and documentarians that kept the suspicions of the true intentions that these studies sought, the British could go to obtain pieces of valuable information constituted by work teams and even lonely explorers who traveled the territories of the same Patagonia, its shores and they extended in explorations in Malvinas and around their adjacent waters.

At the time of these informative pieces that were collected under the full credulity of Argentines at the time, the Foreign Office had reports predicted that Argentina, if realized its potential wealth, would obtain the oil self-sufficiency by 1980 making capabilities export approximately 50,000 to 80,000 million barrels, representing a mountain of black gold undiscovered. Some British geologists as Bernard Grossling had revealed in 1977 that oil production capacity which was silent on the soil of Argentina continental shelf could reach 90,000 million barrels of oil, which promised very good business for those venturing their exploitation.

These expectations had also been expressed in the British academic field, especially by Professor Donald Griffiths who in 1975 claimed from his chair of geophysics at the University of Birmingham that "the bank Burwood, south of the archipelago and east of the Island States, could contain a sub oceanic deposit at least as rich as the North sea. 

With this background and which the Foreign Office was compiled with reports own intelligence obtained in the field on the situation of Argentina, will step to the next phase was to venture by sea with naval explorers should seek to gather intelligence the situation in the south Atlantic and in turn, to start generating an escalation of provocations that lead to Buenos Aires fall into the trap. At that point, were at stake not only potential reservoirs beneath the waters surrounding the Malvinas, Georgias and Sandwiches, but also in the Magallanes area where the British had -and still pointing out- a strategic ally, as Chile is.

The American newspaper "The Wall Street Journal" in a "prophetic" article in the June 3, 1981 stated that Argentina could become a major exporter of oil, even more than some of the OPEC members. "Undoubtedly this was an incentive both to London to Buenos Aires, to avoid being wrest such spaces.

Argentine consecutive governments have not sought any real remedy this scam may very properly classified theft in the wild, facilitated by weak governments, corrupt politicians and the media who play the tune that London puts on dance.

Currently the joint ventures that develop in the face of Buenos Aires, between British companies and Rockhopper on the islands have calculated that can increase their oil production to one billion barrels of oil that not only justify buying companies "Falkland Oil & Gas" but also all deaths that produced the 1982 war (http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/05/20/falklands-rockhopper-announces-double-contingent-oil-reserves-over-300m-barrels/  )