Sinking the Belgrano: the Pinochet connection
Sinking the Belgrano: the Pinochet connection
No incident in the Falklands War divided opinion so bitterly. Some even called it a war crime. Now a member of the War Cabinet has revealed how Argentine orders intercepted by Chile convinced the British that their enemies' prize cruiser had to be sunk
Colin Brown , Kim Sengupta
Tuesday 03 April 2012
It was the moment which came to define the Falklands conflict, immediately claiming more than 300 lives and setting in chain events which would lead to the invasion of the disputed islands by British troops. Now, as services are held to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the war, a member of Margaret Thatcher's War Cabinet has revealed details of how intelligence received from the Chilean regime of fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet led to the decision to sink the Argentine warship General Belgrano.
The sinking of the former US warship was controversial because at the time it was outside a British 200-mile Total Exclusion Zone around the Falklands and was steaming away from the UK Task Force. The cruiser went down with the loss of 323 lives – more than half of the total Argentine losses in the war.
In an exclusive interview for a forthcoming book on the history of Britain, Real Britannia, Lord Parkinson discloses that the War Cabinet took the decision after receiving secret intercepts from Chilean intelligence services revealing the orders from the Argentine junta to the warship's captain, Hector Bonzo.
Lord Parkinson, one of Lady Thatcher's closest allies, said: "They (Chile) had intercepted the Argentinian command's instructions... We had been discussing what we would do if we found it [the Belgrano] because we knew the Belgrano was out to sink a carrier. The fact that it was going one way or the other, it was manoeuvring to avoid a torpedo."
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/sinking-the-belgrano-the-pinochet-connection-7609047.html
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The Atlantic remembers: 30 Years Since the Falklands War
PS: Thanks for the heads-up on Pinochet's connection to the Iron Lady. No wonder the guy went to London to hide.
