Comment by montecristo on Mon 24 Aug 2009 - 10:08 pm UTC:

He didn't have anything useful to add. The enmity between the two countries
over Patagonia is well known, as is the relationship to the Falklands.
Beyond that, no news, sorry....

Comment by User myoarin on Mon 24 Aug 2009 - 10:48 pm UTC:

I don't see the connection to the Falkland Islands.  They are in the South
Atlantic, and that was a dispute between the UK and Argentina, nothing to
do with Chile.

Comment by Researcher Guillermo Arnaudo (guillermo) on Tue 25 Aug 2009 - 6:19 pm UTC:

Myo's right. I'm Argentinian, and was 22 at the time of the war. I don't
remember having seen such a poster, and asked friends of mine who don't
remember it either. Not even a few years before the war with UK, when the
military dictatorship in both Argentina and Chile almost engaged in war for
the tiny Beagle channel -- not Patagonia as a whole. Over 19th and 20th
centuries there have been disputes on where the borders had to be set, not
really about the whole territory, and in the end, all of them have been
solved peacefully. However, it is said that Chile gave logistic support to
the British during the war, what would make sense given that there was a
preexisting tension between both countries at that time, but the conflict
with UK itself had nothing to do with Chile -- this is an Argentinian claim
since 1833, when the Argentinian authorities of the islands were expelled
by a British expedition. Hope this helps.

Comment by Researcher Guillermo Arnaudo (guillermo) on Tue 25 Aug 2009 - 6:44 pm UTC:

It's also interesting to note that the war itself was way more related to
domestic Argentinian politics than to the sovereignty claims, which had
always been carried within international law procedures -- no Argentinian
democratic government would have ever engaged in such a war. It was a crazy
attempt of the military to retain the power they had illegitimately held
since 1976, which was weakening by increasing popular rejection. On March
31 1982, three days before the take-over (April 2), there was a huge
demonstration against the dictatorship (and repressed by it), summoned by
the workers' central and human rights organizations -- I was there, by the
way. But the claim for Malvinas is so deeply rooted in Argentinian
feelings, that the effect was extreme, the huge majority of the people --
otherwise against the dictatorship -- supported the action. As to me, I
didn't buy it at all, I was devastated by the news, because any outcome
would be bad: the (impossible) event of winning a war against UK would mean
the perpetuation of the dictatorship; the most likely one, which actually
happened, would not be a happy one either (although it did push ahead the
fall of the dictatorship), especially meaning the death of many innocent
young conscripts. I joined a tiny movement called Paz Ya (Peace Now; don't
bother googling for it, it was minuscule, no records left).

Comment by User myoarin on Tue 25 Aug 2009 - 8:00 pm UTC:

Hi Montecristo,

It would have been Chilean poster, presumably with the text in Spanish.
If your father remembers the poster, does he remember reading the text, or
did he see it somewhere with a caption translating the text.  Of course, if
he reads Spanish  - from my own bilingual experience -  the actual language
can be forgotten and only the content recalled.

If the poster dates from the late 1970s, early 1980s, it could have been
propaganda prior to the Peace and Friendship Treaty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Peace_and_Friendship_of_1984_between_Chile_and_Argentina

Any help?  Could a search with possible Spanish versions of the remembered
text lead to something?

Good luck, Myo

Comment by Researcher Guillermo Arnaudo (guillermo) on Tue 25 Aug 2009 - 9:30 pm UTC:

If that poster existed, I don't think it was ever used as propaganda in
Argentina, not during the Beagle crisis (1978), let alone at the time of
the Treaty in 1984, under the regained democracy. And, definitely, it would
have made no sense regarding the conflict with UK.