MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine radicals planned to ‘capture” Falklands’ conflict vessel in Montevideo

The former ‘Yehuin’ currently ‘Audax II’ operates in the port of Montevideo as an auxiliary support vessel

An Argentine extremist group is planning to ‘capture’ a vessel which was involved in the Falklands conflict and currently flies the Uruguayan flag and operates in the port of Montevideo, as an act of vindication ahead of the coming 30th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Islands.

According to Uruguayan military intelligence, this branch of the radical Quebracho group acts under the disguise of Malvinas war veterans and connects through Facebook.

The ‘mission’ as it is described by the group, is to return the ‘true identity’ and flag to the vessel “Audax II”, previously “Yehuin”, which is considered “a war hero” for its support activities to the Argentine Navy during the 1982 conflict and which was finally captured by the British Task force

The vessel currently belongs to Montevideo ship chandlers Christophersen and is used to provide floating pneumatic shock absorbers for high seas transhipment when two ships come next to each other.

“The vessel is in Uruguay, and it just slip from our hands but before the end of March we are going to return its identity and flag” said a message posted this week in Facebook by an individual under the name of Diego Salce.

The message adds that a “resistance command” has located the ‘Yehuin’ in Punta del Este and we are watching on it, “we are going to repatriate it”.

The group identifies itself in Uruguay as “Patriotic Resistance” and is made up of alleged Malvinas war veterans.

Apparently the group anticipated its intentions to the Argentine embassy in Montevideo last Friday and the legation immediately reported it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

From there onwards the Montevideo port authorities were alerted and Navy intelligence was called to keep track of the situation.

The group effectively turned up and requested over the weekend to enter the port since there was going to be a celebration in a vessel. Permission was denied since Navy intelligence had found out that the purpose was to ‘capture’ the ‘Audax II’ and remain on board for three to four weeks and attract international media attention given the coming Malvinas invasion anniversary.

This is not the first time the group has done similar actions. In September 2010 several members of the same group ‘captured’ the former “Yehuin” when she was docked in Buenos Aires.

A video displayed in You Tube shows the boarding of the vessel at broad light and with graffiti the original name ‘Yehuin’ was scribbled all over. The Panamanian flag was replaced by the Argentine colours. The group sang the national anthem and showed on the video a book from former president Juan Domingo Peron “Revolutionary doctrine” before leaving the vessel.

The Quebracho movement is an extremist political and social alliance born in Argentina in 1996, based on the melting of several popular organizations from different ideological background extending from the ruling left-wing Peronism to Marxist, Trotskyites and Leninist groups.

This mix also includes splinters from the former Montoneros and the Revolutionary Army of the People, ERP, the guerrilla groups of the seventies that openly challenged the Argentine Armed and security forces all of which ended in a terrible carnage.