Papal Mediation in The Beagle Conflict - To The Falklands War

To The Falklands War

After the papal proposal, negotiations remained stalled and meanwhile, a train wreck of incidents in Chile and Argentina strained relations between the two countries.

On 28 April 1981 General Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, (then Argentine army chief, later, during the Falklands war, President of Argentina), closed the border to Chile without any consultation with his own president.

In March 1982, five weeks before the beginning of the Falklands war, a ship of the Argentine navy, ARA Francisco de Gurruchaga, anchored at the Deceit island, de facto under Chilean sovereignty since 1881, and refused to abandon the bay despite Chilean demands

On 2 April 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. The Argentine plan included indeed the military occupation of the disputed islands at the Beagle channel after the invasion of the Falklands, as stated by Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo, chief of the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands war, in an interview with the Argentine magazine Perfil: L.F. Galtieri:" have to know that what we are doing now, because they will be the next in turn.. Also Óscar Camilión, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Argentina from 29 March 1981 to 11 December 1981, in his "Memorias Políticas", confirms the plan of Argentine military: "The military planning was, with the Falklands in Argentine hand, to invade the disputed islands in the Beagle Channel. That was the determination of the navy…". Pope John Paul II made an unscheduled visit to Buenos Aires on June 14, 1982 in an attempt to prevent further hostilities between Britain and Argentina.

Chile became the only major Latin American country to support Britain indirectly by providing a military and naval diversion, but "in private many governments were pleased with the outcome of the war".