‘On 2 April 1982 in an act of unprovoked aggression against British sovereign territory and British people Argentine forces invaded the Falkland Islands.‘

The Spanish press showed an immediate fascination for and obsession with the Falklands/Malvinas crisis, reporting it in such detail that an observer from another planet might have been forgiven for thinking that the islands were a Spanish colony rather than a British one. In El País, the news was on the front page for several days, it was the main international news story (on page 2 and following) every day for two months from 4 April to 5 June (when Israel invaded Lebanon), and it reappeared on the front page from 14 to 17 June at the time of the Argentine surrender and its aftermath.

However, what was to distinguish Spanish coverage of the South Atlantic crisis from the way in which it was reported in the British press was the fact that in Spain, throughout the months of April and May 1982, the connection was repeatedly made between Argentina's dispute with Britain over the Falklands/Malvinas and Spain's dispute with Britain over Gibraltar. In Britain, for the most part, Gibraltar could not have been further from the minds either of politicians or newspaper editors.

The references in Spain sometimes involved the drawing of parallels or distinctions between the two issues; at others the question was raised of the effect that the Falklands/Malvinas crisis would have on the progress of negotiations on the Gibraltar question.