A very touching event was held at the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands Museum to commemorate the Day of the Veterans and Fallen of the Malvinas War. The activity at the former ESMA concluded with a group of veterans, including a nurse from the icebreaker Almirante Irízar, singing León Gieco's anthem “Sólo le pido a Dios” (I only ask God), next to the Argentine flag.
A small number of guests participated in the activity, held on April 2 outside the museum due to the health situation. The event was attended by the Minister of Culture, Tristán Bauer, the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus, and the head of the Museum, the veteran Edgardo Esteban, among others. At the beginning the flag was raised and the national anthem was sung in the voice of Leonardo Pastore.
Only about 30 people participated, mostly veterans -men and women, like the former nurse Norma Navarro-, relatives of fallen soldiers and personalities with specific stories linked to the islands.
“We are in the Museum this April 2 remembering our heroes, our martyrs”, Bauer said, and thanked “particularly the women who were in Malvinas defending our sovereignty”.
“We thank those who stayed there, their example, their lives, and those who returned and to this day continue to claim, continue to fight for Argentine rights over the Malvinas. The fight for Malvinas continues and will always continue until Justice is achieved. The Malvinas are, were and will be Argentine”, highlighted the Minister of Culture.
“We join the Argentine people in honoring those who fought in Malvinas, those who fell fighting bravely, but also those who returned to the continent and bear in their bodies and minds the pride and the traces of having participated in the conflict, and their families”, stated Filmus. “We highlight the commitment of President Alberto Fernández, who keeps alive the claim to exercise sovereignty over the islands and advances in improvements for veterans through three bills that he will send to Congress”, he added.
The Secretary of Human Rights of the Nation, Horacio Pietragalla, Senator Oscar Parrilli, the general coordinator of the National Commission for the Outer Limit of the Continental Shelf (COPLA), Frida Armas Pfirter, the National Director of Museums, Marisa Baldasarre and the head of the AMIA, Ariel Eichbaum.
Esteban affirmed that “We will return to Malvinas with the support of the countries of the region, because after all it is a part of Latin America. And this context where the European Union stopped recognizing the Malvinas as an extra-continental territory and calls it a colony, is a great opportunity for Argentina to seek new bonds and new allies, while the British Empire seeks to strengthen itself with that military base in our islands.
During the meeting, a bicontinental map with Ushuaia as the center of the country was also inaugurated at the Museum, which institutionalizes the enormous extension of Argentina, its continental platform and its enormous natural wealth. In the closing of the event, Bruno Arias from Jujuy presented “Hermanos de Malvinas” (Brothers of Malvinas), a song in honor of the veterans and fallen.
