Leopoldo Galtieri - Falklands War

Falklands War

In April 1982, after Galtieri had been in office for four months and with his popularity low, Argentine forces invaded the lightly defended Falkland Islands, governed by the United Kingdom and subject to a long-standing Argentine territorial claim. The United Kingdom and many other countries around the world condemned the annexation, while Peru and other Latin American countries supported it (the U.S. and Chile eventually joined the group of countries supporting the British position). In Argentina the invasion was enormously popular, and the anti-junta demonstrations were replaced by patriotic demonstrations in support of Galtieri. On the morning of April 2, 1982, the first day of the invasion, a small group of people gathered in the historic Plaza de Mayo, across from the Casa Rosada, the government site. After a while Galtieri showed up on one of the balconies (not the same used by Perón but one to the left of it) and raised his hands to cheer the small group of supporters. A few minutes later a siren was heard and many bystanders started to flee in panic, reminiscent of the tough repression that happened just a few days before in the same place, on March 30.

Galtieri, and most of his government, thought that the United Kingdom would never respond militarily and in the worst case scenario the United States would not interfere after the support given by the junta to the Central Intelligence Agency in its fight against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the warm welcome given to Galtieri after a recent visit to Washington DC. However, critics of Galtieri would later charge that there had never been any evidence to suggest the UK would not fight to retake the Falklands, or that the United States would not support its closest ally in Europe. After diplomatic pressure and negotiations led nowhere, the UK government, led by the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, decided to re-take the islands, and deployed naval task forces to do so. Despite the numerical and geographic advantages held by Argentina, the superior training and technology of the British armed forces ensured British victory in the Falklands War within two months.