MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas landing to be marked

The landing of Argentine troops on the British-controlled Malvinas Islands ordered by the then dictator Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri on April 2, 1982, will be marked today by a series of commemorative events throughout the country.

The main official ceremony will take place at 11am at the El Palomar First Airborne Brigade and be led by President Néstor Kirchner. Also present will be the Defence Minister Nilda Garré, the government's forces joint chief-of-staff Brigadier Jorge Chevallier, General Roberto Bendini, Admiral Jorge Godoy and Brigadier Eduardo Schiaffino, as well as some of the war's veterans.

Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires' Plaza San Martín, the Veterans' Centre will hold a ceremony at midday for the 649 Argentine servicemen who died in the war. Their names will be read out and the veterans will then reiterate their claims for health treatment and scholarships for their children.

At the Metropolitan Cathedral the commission of the victims' next-of-kin will celebrate a mass at 8pm, with the image of Our Lady of Luján present at the altar for the last time before it is taken to the Malvinas via various Argentine provinces.

At 6.30pm, veterans will carry out an exposure protest against former Malvinas governor and military commander Mario Benjamin Menendez (who surrendered to the British). They want the law by which Menendez receives an honorary pension to be rectified. The leader of the Centre of Malvinas-La Plata Veterans, Rodolfo Lerlino, said that the protest will also be held in support of "the human rights politics that Kirchner is promoting."

A British task force recovered control of the islands after a 74-day war. Argentina has been claiming sovereignty over the South Atlantic archipelago since it was occupied by the British in 1833. Source: Buenos Aires Herald