BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Authorities in Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego province denied entry on Monday to two Bermuda-flagged cruise ships that were seeking to dock in the southern port of Ushuaia, in incidents linked to the political dispute over the Falkland Islands, CNN reported.
One of the ships — the Star Princess — departed Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on February 18 on a 14-night South America cruise and, because the ship had previously called at Stanley in the Falkland Islands, it was denied entry to Ushuaia.
The P&O cruise liner Adonia, which is on a South American tour from Southampton, England, got a similar reception on Monday, for the same reason.
In 1982, after Argentina invaded the islands, it fought — and lost — a two-month undeclared war with Britain. Argentina continues to press its claim to the islands, which are home to more than 3,000 people, most of them of British descent.
Tensions have risen over the Falklands as the 30th anniversary of Argentina’s 1982 invasion nears. Celebrations are planned in the UK for the anniversary of the Falklands War starting from May 20.
Britain recently sent to the area HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer armed with enough firepower that one navy source told the Daily Mail newspaper, could “take out all of South America’s fighter aircraft, let alone those of Argentina”.
A British nuclear submarine was also reportedly being deployed to the area.
Earlier this month, at the 11th summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA), made up of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Ecuador and St Vincent and the Grenadines, participating heads of state and government approved a special agreement to back Argentina’s call for the restoration of the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory claimed by Argentina as Las Malvinas, to Argentinean sovereignty.
Just days after the ALBA summit, the Commonwealth Caribbean countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, which were among ALBA members that had reportedly agreed to block any ships flying the Falkland Islands flag from docking in their ports, tried to distance themselves from any purported agreement.
Source: Caribbean News Now
