ARGENTINA: ALFONSIN ATTENDS RALLY AT CLOSE OF CAMPAIGN TO END BEAGLE CHANNEL DISPUTE.

Record ID: 214896

  • Title: ARGENTINA: ALFONSIN ATTENDS RALLY AT CLOSE OF CAMPAIGN TO END BEAGLE CHANNEL DISPUTE.
  • Date: 27th November 1984
  • Summary: NOVEMBER 23: (SPANISH COMMENTARY) 1. GVs Stadium packed with thousands of people (2 shots) 0.09 2. SVs President Raul Alfonsin entering stadium, and waving to crowd from podium (4 shots) 0.32 NOVEMBER 25: (NATURAL SOUND) 3. SV Armed soldier in corridor of poling station 0.35 4. CUs People voting (4 shots) 0.50 5. GVs TILT DOWN Alfonsin surrounded by reporters (
  • Embargoed: 12th December 1984 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2460QYVQEO0P9I6KG0TUSQD4Z
  • Story Text: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

    Argentine President Raul Alfonsin, the target of an earlier murder plot, made a public appeal for Latin American unity on November 23. Alfonsin, speaking at a huge rally in Buenos Aires, also urged support for a proposed border treaty with neighbouring Chile. A crowd of about 70,000 people had gathered to hear the President, only a few hours after a bomb exploded, blowing a one metre (yard) wide hole in an outside wall of the soccer stadium where the rally was held. Another bomb, placed near a ticket window, was defused by a police bomb squad. Nobody claimed responsibility for the bombs. In his speech, President Alfonsin urged people to vote 'yes' in the next day's referendum on the proposed treaty, saying it would help slow the military build-up Latin America and end conflicts which made the region vulnerable to outside threats. He told the audience, which included politicians from 11 Latin American nations, including Nicaragua, the region must unite. The results of the referendum, held to win approval for a Vatican-mediated settlement of Argentina's dispute with Chile, gave President Alfonsin the victory he hoped for. Some 73 per cent of the nation's 18.4 million voters cast their votes, and voters approved the treaty by a margin of 77.5 in favour, to 21 per cent against. The treaty, to be singed at the Vatican, grants Chile three islands in the area of the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of South America, but delineates territorial waters according to Argentine claims. Approval of the treaty is said to be a diplomatic victory for Pope John Paul II, who pulled the two nations from the brink of war in 1978, and involved the Vatican in five years of talks. Alfonsin's triumph in the referendum marked a resounding defeat for the Peronist Party, which had urged a boycott, saying the government was using the poll as a vote of confidence.

    <strong>Source: REUTERS - HECTOR LOPEZ</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register