OAS head skeptical about Pope's possible mediation over Malvinas

The Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General José Miguel Insulza is skeptical about a possible mediation from Pope Francis between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Malvinas sovereignty dispute as it was requested by President Cristina Fernández.

From Rome, where the Chilean attended the papacy’s inauguration mass, the OAS official told reporters: “I support that dialogue, which I consider is the only chance there is, but I doubt it is an issue for the Pope. Besides as an Argentine it is even more difficult for him to act.”

During a brief meeting and lunch held on Monday between Francis and Fernández, the latter asked the pontiff for his holy intervention in the Malvinas sovereignty dispute with England, and remembered that back in 1978 then Pope John Paul II had mediated right on time in the conflict between Argentina and Chile over the Beagle channel when the Argentine tanks started rolling towards their neighbour.

However Insulza said that circumstances are different because at the time there was a situation of imminent war, “but now things are entirely different, since the Argentine President has discarded recovering the Malvinas by force.”

Insulza added that following the inauguration mass he congratulated the Pope and confessed him “my deep desire that relations between Argentina and Chile should always be very good”.