Oh, Hugo...

William Haskins

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IN a new outburst of antiwestern sabre-rattling, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has threatened Britain with “revenge” for the Falklands war of 1982. The belligerent Latin American leftist warned last week that his recent build-up of sophisticated Russian and Iranian weapons would be used to destroy the British fleet if it attempted to return to the South Atlantic.

Speaking on his weekly television show Alo Presidente (Hello, Mr President), Chavez denounced what he described as Britain’s “illegal occupation” of the Falklands and repeated his call for a regional military alliance against Britain and the United States.

“If we had been united in the last war, we could have stopped the old empire,” Chavez said, as he gesticulated to maps showing how Venezuelan aircraft and submarines would intercept British warships. “Today we could sink the British fleet.”



http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2368707.ece
 

SC Harrison

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well, the primary population of the falklands are sheep...

So it's the Brit's love of wool that got them caught up in this foreign debacle? I dedicate this song to change:

"Jump down, turn around,
pick a bale of cotton;
jump down, turn around,
pick a bale a day.

Ohhh, Lord,
pick a bale of cotton..."
 

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I had to read up on the history before saying much. Apparently, almost all the residents on the island are fully British.

The islands are strategic, I suppose. . . about five hundred or so miles from Antarctica. But Argentina and the UK have been squabbling over them forever.

I say: split them.

Take the wind out of Hugo's sails.

No doubt Chavez, at this point, could probably sink a couple of Brit ships if they were token, but not if the UK threw some real military might at defending the islands.

Oh, btw, South America suspended flights to the islands after Pinochet was arrested in London. They probably have resumed. But the islands' ownership is still being disputed through the UN now, right?

Chavez may actually get some traction over this.
 
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maxmordon

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Venezuela is reclaiming a piece of land called Guayana Esequiba; This was was took off our hands about several years ago because it was full of gold mines and our government (well, my government. The Venezuelan one) through the years have done very little about it since the Port of Spain protocol.

From Wikipedia:

Guayana Esequiba is the territory of Guyana claimed by Venezuela. The name Guayana Esequiba is a term only used by Venezuela. It consists of six administrative regions of Guyana: Barima-Waini, Cuyuni-Mazaruni, Pomeroon-Supenaam, Potaro-Siparuni, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo and Essequibo Islands-West Demerara. Area 159.500 km²

Spanish authorities in a report dated 10 July 1788 put forward the first claim:

It has been stated that the south coast of the Orinoco from the point of Barima, 20 leagues more or less inland, up to the creek of Curucima, is low lying and swampy land and, consequently, reckoning all this tract as useless, very few patches of fertile land being found therein, and hardly any savannahs and pastures, it is disregarded; so taking as chief base the said creek of Curucima, or the point of the chain and ridge in the great arm of the Imataka, an imaginary line will be drawn running to the south-south-east following the slopes of the ridge of the same name which is crossed by the Rivers Aguire, Arature and Amacuro, and others, in the distance of 20 leagues, direct to the Cuyuni; from there it will run on to the Masaruni and Essequibo, parallel to the sources of the Berbis and Surinama; this is the directing line of the course which the new Settlements and foundations proposed must follow.

In 1840 Venezuela claimed all of Guyana west of the Essequibo River — 62% of Guyana's territory. Britain and Venezuela argued over the boundary between what was then British Guiana and Venezuela for much of the 19th century. On 21 February 1881, in a note to Lord Grenville, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain at that time, Venezuela proposed a frontier line starting from a point one mile to the north of the Moruka River, drawn from there westward to the 60th meridian and running south along that meridian. This would have granted the Barima District to Venezuela. The Government of Venezuela, in the case it presented to the Arbitral Tribunal, modified its claim as regards the district immediately west of the Essequibo, and claimed that the boundary should run from the mouth of the Moruka River southwards to the Cuyuni, near its junction with Mazaruni, and then along the east bank of the Essequibo to the Brazilian frontier. Britain and Venezuela accepted the decision of a Tribunal of Arbitration in 1899.

Venezuela formally raised the issue again in 1962, four years before Guyana won independence from Britain. At a meeting in Geneva in 1966, the two countries agreed to receive recommendations from a representative of the UN Secretary General on ways to settle the dispute peacefully. Diplomatic contacts between the two countries and the Secretary General's representative continue.

In a note of recognition of the independence of Guyana on 26 May 1966, Venezuela stated:

Venezuela recognises as territory of the new State the one which is located on the east of the right bank of the Essequibo River, and reiterates before the new State, and before the international community, that it expressly reserves its rights of territorial sovereignty over all the zone located on the west bank of the above-mentioned river. Therefore, the Guyana-Essequibo territory over which Venezuela expressly reserves its sovereign rights, limits on the east by the new State of Guyana, through the middle line of the Essequibo River, beginning from its source and on to its mouth in the Atlantic Ocean.

Venezuelan maps produced since 1970 show the entire area from the eastern bank of the Essequibo, including the islands in the river, as Venezuelan territory. On some maps, the western Essequibo region is called the "Zone of Reclamation".[1]

Boundary_lines_of_British_Guiana_1896.jpg




So if he wants to recover a land took by British imperialism; try the one he has next door and not the one he suffered the briefcase man fiasco (A man who apparently worked for Chávez entered to Argentina with a briefcase with 800.000 US Dollars. They never gave any official version about it)