MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas Families with statue of Virgin of Lujan leave for the Falklands

The exhibit at Plaza de Mayo with the original crosses from Darwin cemetery

A second group of Malvinas Familias, estimated in over 200, leave on Friday evening for Rio Gallegos and the following morning to the Falkland Islands for the inauguration of the Memorial in the Argentine cemetery at Darwin.

According to Cesar Trejo from the Malvinas Families this second group, compared to the first of 170 that flew to Darwin last Saturday, “is greater in number and younger in age since the majority are children or brothers and sisters of the combatants fallen” during the South Atlantic conflict with Britain in 1982.

Trejo said that the second group will follow a similar schedule to that of last Saturday which was seen off by Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Once they arrive to Mount Pleasant on the Lan Chile weekly flight they will be driven in several buses to Darwin for the inauguration ceremony of the Memorial including a religious service.

However this group will be carrying a statue of the Virgin of Lujan, Argentina’s saint patron that has toured and has been blessed at the country’s 24 provinces. A hermite is waiting for the image, thus completing the cenotaph which includes 24 plaques with the names of the 649 Argentine combatants killed during the conflict, although the cemetery only holds the remains of 237.

Before flying off on Friday the Malvinas Familias have a full agenda in Buenos Aires that includes at mid morning the opening of the exhibition “Malvinas: Islands of the Memory”. In Plaza de Mayo, the heart of Buenos Aires and across from Government House, the exhibit consists of memorabilia from the Falklands conflict and the original crosses that stood at the Argentine cemetery in Darwin before the cenotaph was built.

Early afternoon Malvinas Families next of kin from all over Argentina will converge at the Congress Plaza to farewell the group of 200 travellers and the Virgin statue. At 17:00 hours a mass will be held at Buenos Aires Cathedral in Plaza de Mayo conducted by Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio.

The group is travelling to Falklands accompanied by Bishop Juan Carlos Romanin of Rio Gallegos who underlined the significance of the statue.

“This is the statue of Our Lady of Lujan, patroness of Argentina, the last piece of the monument to our fallen soldiers on the Falkland Islands,” the bishop said, adding that the Mother of God will watch over the eternal repose of our brothers “who fought the good fight for independence and national sovereignty,” as the inscription at the foot of the statue reads.

“This invitation is truly a gift of God for me, allowing me to travel to this place that is so beloved by our Church. Many of the former soldiers have venerated the Mother of God and have expressed their feelings, necessities, prayers and hopes to her.”

The statue will be erected at the monument in the Cemetery of Darwin to watch over “the Argentineans who lie in rest on the archipelago since 1982.”