There is a billboard which stands alone on route 136, near the town of Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos province, 230 kilometers from Buenos Aires and 25 kilometers from Uruguay, which captures the aspirations of more than 42 million Argentines, frustrated by the army of a decadent British colonial empire. On April 2, a commemoration was held in honor of Argentine soldiers killed in the Falkland Islands during the Anglo-Argentine armed conflict of 1982. Since 1833 Argentina has been demanding sovereignty over this South Atlantic archipelago, situated no more than 700 kilometers from the Argentine coast but more than 14,000 kilometers from the UK. In a ceremony at the Casa Rosada presidential headquarters, to commemorate the 32nd anniversary of the war, President Cristina Fernández maintained that she has "infinite confidence" that sovereignty over the Falklands will be recovered, because "Throughout history, colonial territories, sooner or later," are reclaimed. She condemned the British government of David Cameron's increasing militarization of the Islands. In her moving speech, she stated that "The Falklands are NATO's largest surveillance and communications station and nuclear military base in the South Atlantic. "This is the truth that they can not continue to hide" said the President, clearly referring to the UK, and that Argentina's call for sovereignty "should be taken as message of peace to the world." A little history The Falklands War, or the South Atlantic War, was an armed conflict, between Argentina and the UK, which took place on Falkland, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began April 2, 1982, when Argentine soldiers disembarked, and ended June 14, when a ceasefire was called. Argentina attempted to reclaim sovereignty over the islands, which the UN has designated a disputed territory, claimed by both Argentina and the UK, although the latter governs the islands and exploits their resources. The final number of human lives lost in the war was 646 Argentine soldiers, 255 British and three civilians. Argentina's defeat in the war precipitated the fall of its military dictatorship, named "The National Reorganization Process", which had ruled the country for 7 years. Elections were subsequently held in 1983 and the government was inaugurated. In the UK, the military victory helped Margaret Thatcher's conservative neoliberal government win the 1983 elections. However, British history has obscured the fact that, despite winning the war, the colonial fleet received a beating from the very start of the conflict and, according to Argentine sources, suffered an unreported number of casualties. The exact number of lives lost will remain concealed by royal decree, under the pretext of a State Secret, until June 14,2072, by which time all Argentine soldiers, who fought to reclaim the usurped islands, will have died. In 44 days of combat, 70% of the warships and Task Force logistics were sunk or damaged, in addition to dozens of planes and helicopters which were either shot down or hit. These losses were not recognized by Britain, which during the conflict, relied heavily on support - mostly satellite intelligence and weaponry - from the U.S. and Chilean dictator Pinochet, who informed them of the movements of Argentina's Air Force. According to military experts, without this assistance, Britain would have been forced to recall its Task Force. Moreover, analysts have condemned the British government for using Gurkhas (Nepalese mercenaries) and legionnaires from other countries in its forces; sinking the Argentine light cruiser ARA General Belgrano, when it was outside the exclusion zone marked out by the British themselves, and placing nuclear weapons in Latin American territory in violation of the 1967 Tlatelolco agreement, signed in Mexico. Las Malvinas, not The Falkland Islands Britain continues to call these islands the Falklands and retains them by force, which is illegal, but Las Malvinas belong to Argentina, given their history and location in the Argentine sea – part of the country's territorial waters, abundant in oil, gas, trace minerals, and an important source of isinglass, which are being fished indiscriminately on permits authorized by the so-called Kelpers (people brought over from England to repopulate the islands, after Argentines were violently expelled. The islands were discovered in 1502 by members of the Magallan expedition. Despite having been referred to by different names on European maps, they were among territories controlled by the Spanish. Since the May Revolution of 1810, when Argentina won its independence, the islands have been considered Argentine territory, inherited from Spain. On June 10, 1829, the Argentine government founded the Political and Military Command of Las Malvinas and appointed Luis Vernet as commander. In the context of a rebirth of strategic interest in the South Atlantic, on January 1, 1833, a British Royal Navy corvette forcibly removed the Argentine authorities, who refused to recognize British authority. In 1884, after receiving no response from the British to its protests, the Argentine government proposed to take the issue to international arbitration, a move which was inexplicably rejected by the U.K. The so-called "question of the Falklands", understood to mean the dispute between Argentina and the Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland, South Georgia and Sandwich Islands and their surrounding waters, was put forward at the San Francisco Conference, and then presented to the United Nations, with an abundance of facts, presented by the Argentine delegation. On December 16, 1965, the UN, in response to the General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV), approved Resolution 2065 (XX), which recognizes the existence of a bilateral sovereignty dispute between Britain and Argentina, and calls upon both countries to negotiate a peaceful resolution. Since 1989, to date, the issue has been under consideration by the UN's Special Decolonization Committee, while the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), The Latin American Association for Integration (ALADI), The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) support Argentina's legitimate claim over Las Malvinas. The 1982 conflict did not change the nature of the sovereignty dispute between Argentina and Britain. |