President Alberto Fernández led this followingnoon, at the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands Museum, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Núñez, the official act for the Veteran’s Day, Ex-combatants and Fallen in the Malvinas War, on the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the war, on which he reaffirmed: “The Malvinas were, are and will be Argentine, and we will always maintain the commitment assumed with the memory of those who fell in national territory”.
“The Argentine Republic reiterates its search for a negotiated and peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute, because we have an inalienable objective of recovering the full exercise of sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands, and we will continue working within the framework of the deepest respect for international law. , to recover what belongs to us and for our right and the memory of the victims”, he emphasized.
At the beginning of his speech, the president thanked the ex-combatants present, while paying tribute to the officers of the Armed Forces “who worthily fought in the Malvinas”.
“We feel pride for our combatants, our fallen and for our legitimate right to sovereignty. Of all of them for having left an indelible mark on the great history of our country”, assured the president.
And he underlined “the horror for the terrible and irresponsible decision of a dictatorship that sent to the death hundreds of compatriots who bravely and courageously defended that Argentine sovereignty. For this reason, when we say Never Again with force and determination, we also extend it to our heroes and heroines of the Malvinas so that they never once more fall into oblivion and the silence of any government”.
“Let us not get tired of repeating “honor to our soldiers of the South Atlantic war””, asked the head of state who was accompanied by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio Massa; the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, Santiago Cafiero; Defense, Jorge Taiana; and the Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta.
Also present were the former presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales, Uruguay, José Pepe Mujica, and Paraguay, Fernando Lugo; the governor of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof; the holders of the different portfolios of the national cabinet; the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona; the director of the Malvinas Museum, Edgardo Esteban; senators and national deputies; representatives of human rights organizations; union referents; veterans and veterans, and relatives of the fallen in the warlike conflict.
“By popular mandate, by historical understanding and by political decision, we have managed to make the soldiers who embarrassed our Armed Forces today constitute a past to which no one wants to return,” said the president and affirmed: “The Malvinas issue should not be a matter of a government, but it is a State policy”.
Along these lines, he explained that the national government, “40 years following the South Atlantic conflict, launched the Malvinas Agenda 40 years and we have declared 2022 as the year of homage of the Argentine people to the fallen, their families and veterans” , while underlining: “We continue to denounce to the world that it is one of the last remnants of colonialism.”
During the ceremony that took place in the Museum square, located in the Space for Memory and Human Rights (Former ESMA), the Argentine flag was raised simultaneously with the cities of Ushuaia, Resistencia, Rosario, Malvinas Argentinas, San Carlos de Bariloche and Salta, while the lyrical tenor Darío Volonté, former Malvinas combatant and survivor of the sinking of the cruise ship ARA General Belgrano, performed the song “Aurora”.
Next, the singer Dolores Solá sang the verses of the Argentine National Anthem.
Then, the President, together with Massa, Cafiero and Gómez Alcorta, presented 15 commemorative medals to veterans, ex-combatants and relatives of those who fell during the war, while another 20,000 decorations were awarded throughout the country to those who formed part of the war in the South Atlantic.
Finally, the artist Luna Sujatovich sang the Malvinas March before those present.
