Alejandro Jacobo Betts
(born Alexander Jacob Betts, 28 October 1947
– 13 March 2020) was a
Falklands-born Argentine air-traffic controller and activist who worked with the
Argentine government
The government of Argentina, within the framework of a federal system, is a presidential representative democratic republic. The President of Argentina is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the Presiden ...
as a technical advisor on the Tierra del Fuego Malvinas Question Provincial Observatory Advisory Council. Betts supported
Argentina's claim to the Falkland Islands and was a controversial figure in the Falklands as a result. Betts also was the older brother of Terry Betts, who served as a member of the
Falkland Islands Legislative Council and assisted British forces in the
Falklands War.
His younger brother Peter served in the
British Task Force.
Early life
Betts, a fourth generation Falkland Islander, was born to Cyril Betts and Mally Goss, who ran the Victory Bar in
Stanley
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* ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
. The Goss family first arrived in the Falklands in approximately 1841/2, when Jacob Napoleon Goss (great-great-grandfather) and his wife Ann Patrick arrived on board the ''Alarm''. John Betts (great-great-grandfather) arrived on 9 August 1855, following the shipwreck of the ''Carlton''.
Betts has two younger brothers who participated in the Falklands War: Peter, who was a merchant seaman who served with the British task force, and Terry, who was one of the islanders who volunteered to support British forces.
After the war Terry was elected to serve in the
Falkland Islands Government
The politics of the Falkland Islands takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary representative democratic dependency as set out by the constitution, whereby the Governor exercises the duties of head of state in the ...
.
Another brother died in infancy as the result of
meningitis.
He also had two half-brothers and two half-sisters from his father's first marriage.
At the age of fourteen Betts went to train as sheep shearer and later worked for
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* Heinrich Eduard von Lade (1817–1904), a German banker and amateur astronomer
* The Jarls ...
as an
air-traffic controller at
Stanley Airport. Betts' first wife, Candy, died in 1977 at the age of 26. The couple had a son, Paul, born in 1968 and a daughter, Dawn, born in 1969. Betts' second marriage was to Rosita,
a
Chilean-Falkander,
with whom he had two children.
When he left the Falklands in 1982, he left his daughter Dawn with Rosita. His son Paul was at school in Argentina, where he still lives and has adopted the name Pablo.
Following the Falklands War, Betts divorced Rosita, marrying Santina Toranzo, with whom he had three children.
He married his fourth wife Carol Oyola in 2000.
Betts claimed that he began to question
British sovereignty over the Falklands when he spoke to an Argentine tourist about the issue in the 1970s. He stated that he started studying the
history of the Falkland Islands
The history of the Falkland Islands ( es, Islas Malvinas) goes back at least five hundred years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. Nonetheless, the Falkland Islands have been a matter of controversy ...
in 1976 and concluded after two years of research that "Argentina had absolute rights over the island territory".
Betts' claim that he had supported Argentine sovereignty over the islands as early as 1976 is disputed.
On 18 May 1978 Betts sent a letter to the ''Falkland Islands Times'', strongly protesting against the weak response of the British government to the establishment of an Argentine base on
Thule Island
Thule Island, also called Morrell Island, is one of the southernmost of the South Sandwich Islands, part of the grouping known as Southern Thule. It is named, on account of its remote location, after the mythical land of Thule, said by ancient ...
.
Both of his brothers appear to have been aware of his support for Argentina.
Falklands war
![Letter published in Falkland Times May 1978](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Letter_published_in_Falkland_Times_May_1978.jpg)
In 1982 the
Argentine military government invaded
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
the Falklands and
occupied the islands for 74 days, which led to the
Falklands war between
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
and the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. Betts left the Falklands a few days after the
Argentine surrender, with his wife and children remaining on the islands.
The reasons and circumstances surrounding Betts' departure from the Falklands are disputed. Betts claims he was forced to leave by
British forces
The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...
, with the support of many Falkland Islanders, as a result of his support for Argentina during the war.
Islanders were apparently unaware of Betts' claim to support Argentina and suggested he left the Falklands of his own accord, abandoning his wife and their children (and his 13 yr old daughter from his previous marriage
), because he was having an
extramarital affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of ...
with an Argentine who was working on the islands.
John Fowler, the former deputy editor of ''
Penguin News
''Penguin News'' is the only newspaper produced in the Falkland Islands. It is published every Friday and provides news and features about the islands.
History
The paper was founded as a monthly in 1979, and after the Falkland Islands War it ...
'', pointed out in an editorial that other islanders who
collaborated
Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. Most ...
with the Argentine military during the war suffered no persecution and still live in the islands.
Life in Argentina
After leaving the Falklands, Betts moved to
Córdoba Province and married his Argentine partner, Caroline.
In 2007 Betts unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of
Córdoba.
Betts campaigned in support of Argentine sovereignty over the Falklands, giving evidence at annual meetings of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
Special Committee on Decolonization
The United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, or the Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24), is a committee of ...
as part of Argentina's delegation. In 1987, his brother Terry Betts also gave evidence to the committee as a member of the Falkland Islands Government and although they sat together did not speak, he later said that his brother had ″lost touch″ with developments on the islands since the war. Betts was later to criticise his brother's attendance stating:
In response, John Fowler of the Penguin Times in an editorial replied:
In late 2013 Betts was made a technical advisor of the Tierra del Fuego Malvinas Observatory.
In his evidence to the Special Committee's meeting in 2013, Betts caused controversy when he suggested that during the
Falkland Islands sovereignty referendum campaign, Peter Willets, an Emeritus Professor of Global Politics from
City University London
City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...
, had his credentials as an official referendum observer removed by the Falkland Islands Government because he stated the referendum result would not be recognised legally.
Peter Willets later strongly condemned Betts' comments as a "highly distorted account" and stated that:
In 2015
''Clarín'' criticised Betts for receiving a
war veteran's pension from the Argentine government despite never being a member of the
Argentine military and was not an Argentine citizen at the time of
the war. Betts responded to the article by pointing out that he had "never denied being an Argentine Malvinas war veteran" and that one of the requisites to collect the veteran's pension is to have been in the Falklands during the war.
The controversy over his treatment of his family led to the Argentine government under President
Macri Macri or Macrì is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Antonio Macrì (ca. 1902 – 1975), Italian leader of the 'Ndrangheta
*Dumitru Macri (born 1931), Romanian footballer
* Federica Macrì (born 1990), Italian artistic gymnast
*F ...
dropping Betts from the Argentine delegation to the UN decolonisation committee in 2018.
In addition, according to ''MercoPress'', this was because he was considered "too aggressive for the British delegation and Falklands petitioners". He was criticised for his allegedly
querulant behaviour by some sources.
In early 2020 he was diagnosed with
spinal cancer
Spinal tumors are neoplasms located in either the vertebral column or the spinal cord. There are three main types of spinal tumors classified based on their location: extradural and intradural (intradural-intramedullary and intradural-extramedullar ...
and died on 13 March 2020.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Betts, Alejandro
1947 births
2020 deaths
Air traffic controllers
Deaths from cancer in Argentina
Neurological disease deaths in Argentina
Deaths from spinal cancer
Falkland Islands emigrants to Argentina
Falkland Islands farmers
People from Stanley, Falkland Islands