Milei official clashes with British minister over Falklands celebration: 'They lie even about this'

A high-ranking official in Argentina's government has publicly challenged a British minister's commemoration of the first sighting of the Falkland Islands by an English corsair in 1592. Alejandro Ciro Álvarez, Undersecretary for University Policies, argued on social media that this date is not the earliest recorded cartographic reference to the archipelago, pointing to earlier Portuguese and Spanish navigators.

Álvarez responded to a post by Uma Kumaran, the British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Overseas Territories and the Caribbean, who congratulated islanders on celebrating the anniversary of John Davis's 1592 sighting. Kumaran's post stated, "Today we celebrate the pride and community spirit of the islanders. Great Britain will always support their right to determine their own future."

In his reply, Álvarez asserted, "They lie even about this." He presented a timeline of historical claims, including possible sightings by Amerigo Vespucci in 1502 and an anonymous Portuguese expedition around 1518-1519. He also cited Esteban Gómez during the Magellan expedition in 1520 as the "most supported version by Spanish cartography" and Alonso de Camargo in 1540 during a Spanish expedition. Álvarez concluded that the 1592 claim by John Davis is "traditional British claim. Today relativized because the islands already appeared on earlier maps," adding that "even serious British historians completely dismiss it."