Argentines Angry as Britain Prepares Falkland Maneuvers

When Britain crushed the invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982, it effectively assured the end of nearly seven years of military rule in Argentina. The disgraced generals who had launched the ill-fated adventure gave up power the next year and a civilian, Raul Alfonsin, was elected president, vowing never to use force to regain the islands.

Now, Argentines are charging that Britain’s plans for military maneuvers around the South Atlantic islands this month could undermine the democratic administration that has taken root since the war.

“The British accelerated the process, very painfully,” said a former Argentine Cabinet minister of the transition to civilian rule. “Now they are trying to destroy the democracy that followed. With these maneuvers, the military will say: ‘See?’ ”

The former Cabinet minister’s comment is probably more a reflection of the nationalistic emotions evoked in Argentina by the Falklands than of the political and military realities. Alfonsin is relatively firmly entrenched and is expected to serve out his term until elections in mid-1989.

Budget cutbacks have left the armed forces unable even to contemplate another fight with the British.

Given such constraints, Argentina has opted for a concerted, vocal diplomatic campaign against the British maneuvers, portraying them as an ill-timed threat to peace and a source of renewed tension in the South Atlantic.

‘Alert’ Proclaimed

In addition, Argentina on Thursday declared “a defensive alert” to “keep a close watch on military activities that may be carried out in the South Atlantic during the announced British exercises,” news agencies reported. A government statement said that “if necessary, (the armed forces) will execute the appropriate defensive plans.”

Britain has stated that its “Fire Focus” maneuvers, due to start Monday and continue to the end of the month, are purely a military exercise, with no political ramifications, designed to test the ability to rush reinforcements to the island garrison using a new airport completed last year. They say the exercises should actually allow a reduction in the islands’ permanent garrison, unofficially estimated at about 2,000 troops--compared to the 43 marines on the islands in April, 1982, when the 10-week war began.

Alfonsin, engrossed in problems with the military, the labor movement, the surging Peronist opposition and a $55-billion foreign debt, reacted bitterly when Britain announced the exercises Feb. 11. He complained in an interview with USA Today: “Britain has never considered us a democracy. On the contrary, it has always sought to insist on the fragility of Argentine democracy.”

Argentina’s claim to the Falklands, an archipelago 300 miles off its southern coast, is ingrained in every schoolchild, and every government--military and civilian--makes a major foreign policy issue of Britain’s seizure of the islands in 1833 and this country’s demand that they be given back.

In January, the newspaper Clarin took note of the “155th anniversary of the illegitimate occupation of the Malvinas Islands” by the British.

Malvinas is the name used in Argentina and all other Spanish-speaking countries for the archipelago.

Asked by an Argentine reporter whether the British might attempt an incursion onto Argentine soil during the maneuvers, Defense Minister Jose Horacio Jaunarena replied, “One never can be sure what the British are thinking.”

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has pledged never to negotiate with Argentina on the sovereignty of the islands, where nearly all of the 1,900 residents are of British descent.

No Formal End of War

In defending the maneuvers, British military spokesmen have noted that Argentina never declared a cessation of hostilities after the 1982 war, in which about 255 British and 750 Argentines were killed. Without a formal halt to the conflict, the British argument goes, the military must be prepared at all times.

Argentine Foreign Minister Dante Caputo responds that Argentina has already offered a formal end to hostilities if Britain agrees to negotiate all aspects of the issue, including sovereignty, which Britain refuses to do.

The stalemate is certain to persist, fed by the fears of both governments that substantive concessions would exact unacceptable political costs at home.

Sen. Adolfo Gass, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and a member of Alfonsin’s Radical Civic Union party, said: “There are two ways to discuss: one is by force, like we did in 1982--and we all know the results. We were in no condition to face a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“So what the democratic government is doing is seeking alternative, peaceful means for entering negotiations.”

Argentina has obtained condemnations of the British maneuvers from virtually every Latin American country, and Brazil has canceled a visit by a British Foreign Office official that would have occurred during the maneuvers.

The lingering tensions have been costly. In 1981, Britain exported $229 million worth of goods to Argentina and imported $281 million in Argentine goods. Last year, Argentina’s near total embargo on British imports--the exceptions were for crucial items such as hospital supplies--limited British sales to $17.5 million. Britain lifted its ban on Argentine imports in 1985, and Argentine exports to Britain last year reached $112 million, still less than half the prewar total.

150-Mile Fishing Zone

Britain has profited from its declaration of a 150-mile exclusive fishing zone in October, 1986, which angered the Argentines nearly as much as the current planned maneuvers. Revenues from licenses to fish in the rich waters will earn the island government about $35 million this year. But the cost of maintaining a large garrison remains far higher.

While economics play a role, at bottom the Falklands dispute is fueled by old-fashioned nationalist sentiment.

“Viewed from the standpoint of the taxpayer in both countries, the excessive military maneuvering by both sides in the South Atlantic, compounded by a deficient diplomatic thrust, can only be seen as a colossal waste of money and, what is probably more important, time,” said the English-language Buenos Aires Herald.

The former Cabinet member, now a businessman who asked not to be identified by name, said: “The British want to humiliate the Argentine army and air force, but they won’t be humiliated. If it’s going to remain a stalemate, why create this tension? What do you buy with that?”

Many share his view that, someday, Argentina will recover the Malvinas.

“The people of Argentina are waiting, like the Chinese have waited for Hong Kong,” he said. “We have waited 155 years. The feeling is--well, we lost this battle, but we haven’t lost the war.”