Milei adviser claims UK being ‘colonised by Islam’ as Falklands row grows

The chief adviser to Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has cited the election of Sagal Abdi-Wali to the UK parliament as evidence of the Islamisation of Britain and further reason for Argentina to take sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

In a post on social media, Santiago Caputo, who is reportedly taking a key role in Argentina’s strategy over the Falklands, suggested that the taking of the south Atlantic islands was necessary to prevent the “interference of an Islamic state” in the region.

Milei shared Caputo’s on the social media platform X.

The intervention from Buenos Aires comes at a moment of heightened tension between Argentina and the UK over the sovereignty of the British overseas territory, which is 300 miles off the South American coastline.

Labour’s Abdi-Wali was elected as the MP for Holborn and St Pancras in London this month, seeing off a challenge from the Green party leader, Zack Polanski. She took her seat in parliament on Monday.

Milei has sought to criminalise executives involved in the Falkland Islands’ nascent oil industry and has threatened to target the fishing sector on which the islands’ economy depends.

Argentina has long sought sovereignty over the islands. The intensity of Argentinian pressure relating to the Falklands is at a level that UK officials say has not been seen since the war 44 years ago that followed the invasion ordered by the then Argentinian dictator, Gen Leopoldo Galtieri.

The 74-day conflict in 1982 ended with the surrender of the Argentinian forces and cost the lives of 649 of their military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders.

This week, Andy Burnham restated the UK’s position that it would respect the wish of the 3,600 islanders to remain British, and the government announced its intention to protect the interests of businesses working in the Falklands.

The Guardian revealed that the Foreign Office had written to Interpol seeking assurance that the law enforcement agency would not respond favourably to requests for the detention of individuals working in the Falklands.

In his statement on X, Caputo – who has worked for Milei since 2021 – wrote that the “United Kingdom was, in many ways, the cradle of modern western civilisation” but that it now posed a threat to the west.

He wrote: “Seeing the United Kingdom being colonised by Islam is not only an imminent risk to the cause of the west as a whole, but also a historical tragedy for those of us who defend the ideas of liberty.

“This is yet another reason why Argentina must firmly project itself toward the south Atlantic and reclaim the Las Malvinas [Argentina’s name for the Falklands]. Given the strategic geopolitical importance the south Atlantic will assume in the coming decades, the west cannot afford the encroachment of an Islamic state within that sphere of influence. Reclaiming the Malvinas is not merely a national cause, it is a cause for the west.”

Caputo accompanied his post with an image of Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee from Somalia, being sworn into parliament.

Under the image, Javier Negre, a rightwing Spanish journalist, commented: “Here is a Somali Muslim woman taking her oath of office on the Qur’an in the English parliament. She has taken the seat formerly held by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Islam is steadily gaining more power in the country.”