Chris

As of right now she's riding a wave of public patriotism. Apparently there were crowds outside El Presidente's palace last night after her speech to veterans about how they're going to get the Falklands back. Mind you, General Galtieri enjoyed similar support for as long as the population thought his 'policy' on the Falklands was a winner. It turned sour for him pretty quickly after HM Armed Forces brought the policy to a rapid halt.

The key thing to remember, however, is that there are no negotiations, and nor will there be any. The British Government has made clear that as far as it is concerned, there is nothing to negotiate. The Falklands are legally held British territory inhabited by British citizens whose occupation and government is every bit as legitimate as the overwhelmingly ethnic European occupation and government of South America (which Kirchner herself describes as Latin America, a term I think I'd be slightly peeved at if I were an Amerindian native of that continent).

Argentina's territorial claim over the Falklands is at odds with its disinterest in pursuing claims on the mainland over territory that was at one time or other governed by the Spanish Crown's Viceroy based in Buenos Aires - such as, for example, most if not all of modern-day Uruguay.

Kirchner's gambit can continue for only as long as she can convince her people she is making progress. As they are not going to get what they actually want - negotiations, leading to control of the Falklands - all she can do by way of a convincer is to continually ratchet up the rhetoric and pull stunts like grassing the UK up to the United Nations for having the temerity to send the Queen's grandson on a mission to rescue drowning fishermen, or for sending a shiny new naval vessel to replace the venerable but slightly creaky old frigate that's currently in the South Atlantic.