Editing History of the Falkland Islands (section)

===Argentine incursions===
With the exception of an attempt by President [[Juan Perón]] to buy the Falkland Islands in 1953 which was rejected as inconceivable by the British government,<ref name=NYTPeron>{{cite news
|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/03/world/peron-in-1953-tried-to-buy-the-falklands.html
|title = Peron in 1953 Tried To Buy the Falklands
|agency = Reuters
|date = 3 January 1984
|newspaper = The New York Times
|access-date = 2013-08-05}}</ref> the immediate post-war period was fairly uneventful. However, a series of incidents in the 1960s marked the intensification of Argentine sovereignty claims.

The first of these took place in 1964, when a light plane piloted by Miguel Fitzgerald touched down on the racecourse at Stanley. Leaping from the aircraft, he handed a letter claiming sovereignty to a bemused islander before flying off again. The stunt was timed to coincide with Argentine diplomatic efforts at the UN Decolonisation Committee.

[[File:MiguelLFitzergersald.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Miguel L. Fitzgerald flew to the Falkland Islands in a [[light aircraft]] in 1964 and 1968.  (Originally published by ''Crónica'', 9 September 1964.)]]

A more serious incident took place on 28 September 1966 when eighteen young [[Peronism|Peronists]] staged a symbolic invasion of the Islands by [[Aircraft hijacking|hijacking]] an [[Aerolíneas Argentinas]] airliner and landing it in Stanley; the group called this action [[Operativo Cóndor]]. There, they raised seven Argentine flags and took four islanders hostage. The planning had been done during a trip to the islands that one of the leaders had made as a tourist.<ref name=AviationSafety>{{cite web|url=http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19660928-0|title=ASN Aircraft accident Douglas DC-4 LV-AGG Port Stanley|first=Harro|last=Ranter|website=aviation-safety.net}}</ref><ref name="OperativoCóndor">{{cite web| url = https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/sociedad/3-73613-2006-09-27.html| title = "Operativo Cóndor en las Malvinas, anticipo de los '70," Adrián Figueroa Díaz, ''Página 12,'' September 27, 2006}}</ref>
<ref name="Mary Cawkell 2001 113"/><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1457899-la-historia-de-18-jovenes-que-secuestraron-un-avion-para-pisar-malvinas | title=La historia de 18 jóvenes que secuestraron un avión para pisar Malvinas | work=La Nacion | access-date=25 March 2014 | archive-date=20 August 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820075319/http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1457899-la-historia-de-18-jovenes-que-secuestraron-un-avion-para-pisar-malvinas | url-status=dead }}</ref> The airliner left at from Buenos Aires, bound for [[Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz|Río Gallegos]] with 48 passengers on board, including Argentine Rear Admiral José María Guzmán, who was on his way to [[Tierra del Fuego]], an Argentine territory of which he was governor. Two armed men entered the flight deck and ordered the pilot to change course toward the Falklands. The pilot attempted to land at the racecourse but the plane hit telegraph poles, and the undercarriage sank into the mud. Islanders, assuming that the plane was in trouble, rushed to assist but found themselves taken hostage by the hijackers<ref name="Mary Cawkell 2001 113">{{cite book|author=Mary Cawkell|title=The History of the Falkland Islands|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YG8VAAAACAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Nelson|isbn=978-0-904614-55-8|page=113}}</ref> (included in the group of four was a young police sergeant, [[Terry Peck]], who became a local hero in the Falklands War).<ref name="Mary Cawkell 2001 113"/> [[Les Gleadell]], acting Governor of the Falkland Islands, ordered that the DC-4 be surrounded.<ref name=briefhistory_150yrs>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html
 |title=Falkland Islands Defence Force: 150 years of Voluntary Service
 |author=Peter Biggs
 |date=November 2004
 |publisher=A brief history of the Falkland Islands
 |access-date=2010-03-26
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006063029/http://www.falklands.info/history/history2.html
 |archive-date=6 October 2007
}}</ref> He received three of the invaders, who announced that they had as much right as anyone to be there and in reply were firmly told that they should disarm and give up. The result of this meeting was an agreement that seven men, including Peck and Captain Ian Martin, commanding a four-man Royal Marines detachment, should be exchanged for the hostages aboard the aircraft. The 26 passengers were then allowed to disembark and sent to lodge with local families, as the island had no hotel. On being taken past the governor's residence, Guzmán laughingly commented: ''"Mi casa"'' ("my house").<ref name=DailyTelegraph/>

After a bitterly cold night in the aircraft, which contained only brandy, wine, orange juice and a few biscuits, the kidnappers surrendered.<ref name=DailyTelegraph>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/5819646/Les-Gleadell.html | work=The Daily Telegraph| location=London | title=Les Gleadell | date=13 July 2009 | access-date=4 May 2010}}</ref> They were kept locked up in an annex to St Mary's Church for a week until they were put aboard an Argentine ship, the ''Bahía Buen Suceso,'' which had lingered outside the harbor awaiting conclusion of the affair. The men were tried in Argentina on crimes that included illegal deprivation of freedom, possession of weapons of war, illegal association, piracy, and robbery in the open. The leaders were sentenced to three years in prison and the others to nine months.<ref name="OperativoCóndor"/><ref name="Mary Cawkell 2001 113"/>

On October of the same year a group of Argentine [[Tactical Divers Group|naval special forces]] conducted covert landings from the submarine [[USS Lamprey (SS-372)|ARA ''Santiago del Estero'']]. The 12-man team, which landed some {{convert|40|km|mi|0}} from Stanley, was led by Juan José Lombardo who later, as Chief of Naval Operations, planned the [[1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.clarin.com/diario/96/03/31/malvinas.html#prof|title=Malvinas: los secretos de la guerra}}</ref>
[[File:ARA-Stgo.jpg|left|thumb|The locally upgraded {{sclass|Balao|submarine|1}} ARA ''Santiago del Estero'', Argentine Naval Base at [[Mar del Plata]], circa 1969]]
In November 1968, Miguel Fitzgerald was hired by the Argentine press to attempt a reprise of his 1964 landing. Accompanied by one of the 1966 hijackers, he flew to Stanley but on arrival found he could not land at the racecourse due to obstacles placed following the hijacking. The plane was forced to crash land on Eliza Cove Road, but the two occupants were unharmed. The stunt was intended to coincide with the visit of [[Alun Jones, Baron Chalfont|Lord Chalfont]] to the islands.

The latter incident proved counter-productive to the Argentine sovereignty push, as Lord Chalfont had been talking to a public meeting at the time of the plane's arrival. The islanders made it plain to Lord Chalfont that they rejected a Memorandum of Agreement negotiated between Britain and Argentina that August which stated that Britain was prepared to discuss sovereignty provided the islanders' wishes were respected. This spurred the formation of the Falkland Islands Committee by London barrister Bill Hunter-Christie and others. The Emergency Committee, as it became known, proved to be an effective lobbying organisation, constantly undermining Foreign Office initiatives on sovereignty negotiations. In December 1968, the lobbying effort managed to force the British Government to state that the islanders' wishes would be paramount.