Britain switched to atomic weapons during the Falkland War in 1982. This was revealed by a series of declassified documents from the Margaret Thatcher administration and released by the British press. The Argentine government considers that the findings “would require a request for explanation” by London.
The revelations of facts that were thought to be possible but hitherto unverified have a disturbing coincidence: they were made yesterday, Monday, January 3rd, the date on which they were fulfilled. 189 years of British occupation in the archipelagoas noted trans-Andean newspaper Page 12.
Information confirms what some of the UK had acknowledged in 2003by suggesting that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher send all kinds of weapons to the South Atlantic in 1982 to force the Argentine military to recapture the islands.
In the same year, the UK Ministry of Defence also acknowledged that there had been “incidents” in the transport of these weapons, such as containers being damaged in transit.
What does the declassified document say
Confirmation of these events was published in recent hours by journalist Richard Norton Taylor, of The Guardian newspaper. The post stated that there were three ships delivered in 1982 with atomic weapons.
In mid-May 1982, British aircraft carrier HMS Hermes has 18 nuclear weapons on the ship and the carrier Invincible (Invincible) has 12. When Royal Fleet auxiliary ship, the Regent hasaccording to unclassified documents.
“Ships is within the ‘Total Exclusion Zone’ imposed by the United Kingdom around the Falkland Islands”, said the British publication in an article entitled “Declassified UK”.
Norton pointed out that the British military warned of the seriousness of the event and considered that if nuclear weapons had been damaged or sunk, Argentina could be made with nuclear technology and “We could face great embarrassment in the non-proliferation field”.
Argentine government reaction
The reaction of the Argentine government was immediate. “It was confirmed in the file declassification. It’s been reported. This is a very serious violation of international regulations. You will need an explanation request”, emphasized Guillermo Carmona, secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic.
In a statement to La Patriada, the official expressed the inconvenience of the national administration and pointed out that “British presence in Malvinas responds to geopolitical interests shared with other Western powers”.
In the same way, he repeated his rejection of the British prime minister’s expression, Boris Johnsonwho in his Christmas greeting called Argentina’s legitimate claim to sovereignty an “invasion” and boasted about his country’s warlike prowess.
For Carmona, with those remarks and disclosure of atomic weapons shipments “British incitement exposed”. For this reason, “we stand in the claims and demands that the United Nations’ request for reopening of negotiations be met,” he said.
Backroom in Margaret Thatchers government
What The Guardian revealed coincides with what Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman wrotethe official British historian of the Falklands War, who admits that nuclear weapons were sent to the islands from Gibraltar.
Information in the National Archives is reportedly marked as “Atoms of Supreme Secrets”. Causing “panic” and bickering among London officials on the physical damage that guns can inflict and also on the types of political decisions they are comfortable or not comfortable making.
This indicates that the action of the Ministry of Defense (MoD), dated April 6, 1982, refers to “primary concern” that some “nuclear depth bombs” could be “lost or damaged and fact published“.
The treatise, Norton Taylor adds, says that “The international impact of such an incident can be devastating”. Then a dispute arose between the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Foreign Relations) who asked the former to “disarm” him. But the Navy refused, notes Norton in “Unclassified Britain.”
As a result, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs became concerned about the presence of nuclear weapons in the South Atlantic would violate the 1967 Tlatelolco Agreementwhich forms a nuclear weapons-free zone in Latin America and surrounding waters, including the Falkland Islands.
That Ministry of Defense The Englishman noted the main arguments in favor of arms storage and, according to Norton’s investigation, stated: “In case of tension or hostility between us and the Soviet Union at the same time as Operation Corporate, the code name is given for the liberation of the Falklands), the military capacity of our warships will be drastically reduced“.
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