MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas Veterans' Day commemoration moved to Air base

On duty next to the Malvinas war Memorial in Bs. Aires

On the 26th anniversary of the beginning of the Falkland Islands conflict, (April 2, 1982), Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will head the main commemoration which is remembered as the Day of the Malvinas veteran and the fallen in the Islands war.

Tens of other commemorations are scheduled this Wednesday in Argentina but the main ceremony will take place late morning at the First Air Brigade in Palomar with speeches from Mrs. Kirchner, the head of the Joint Chief of Staff Brigadier General Jorge Chevalier and a war veteran, according to an official release in Buenos Aires. The first to speak will be the Malvinas veteran, followed by the Brigadier General, who was also involved in the war as a pilot and finally Mrs. Kirchner. The president is expected to reassert Argentina's sovereignty claim over the Malvinas and other South Atlantic insular territories and will also again call on Britain for a humanitarian gesture with the Malvinas families who wish to fly to the Islands for the official inauguration of the monument at the Argentine cemetery in Darwin. Several cabinet ministers and the top officers of the three services and security forces will be present at the Palomar ceremony originally programmed in Palermo, downtown Buenos Aires, but following recent protests during the farmers' conflict it was not considered convenient. Meantime in Ushuaia, capital of Tierra del Fuego, vicepresident Julio Cobos will preside over the ceremony to be held at the Plaza Islas Malvinas which includes a minute of silence in honor of those killed during the 74 days conflict. Cobos on Tuesday participated in the traditional vigil of Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, where Malvinas veterans gather twelve hours before to wait for April 2. Cobos emphasized that the only way to recover the Islands "which are ours, which belong to us, is diplomacy, every day, every hour, every minute". Malvinas veterans' organizations are scheduled to organize ceremonies in the different cities and towns where they have local chapters. Even a radical group under the name of Combative and Class Current has promised the British Embassy in Buenos Aires a protest with flag burning and other "surprises".