MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Praise for Falklands’ population tolerance and criticism for Argentina’s approach

Uruguayan opposition lawmaker Cardoso: “I came to Malvinas to meet a peaceful population”

”I came to meet a peaceful population of sheep farmers and fishing people and they were not waiting for me to support them” but they have very strong and historic links with Uruguay, said lawmaker Jose Cardoso, who is currently in the Falklands to observe the referendum on the Islanders political status and future.

In a column in his Legislative site, Cardoso published, “A trip to the South: Malvinas” in which he tells his experience in the Falklands and at the same time indirectly replies strong ‘provocations’ from Uruguay’s defence minister who blasted him and Jaime Trobo for travelling as observers to the referendum, calling them and their National party “sepoys of the Latinamerican cause”.

“While here (Falklands) the referendum event decided by the inhabitants of the Islands took off I was visiting the cemetery of the Argentine soldiers who died in this South Atlantic territory only 450 kilometres from the mainland. Conscripts, young boys who sacrificed their lives pushed by an unequal war, called for by the Argentine dictatorship to a fully packed Plaza de Mayo”, writes Cardoso.

Next to the huge cross that dominates the cemetery lies a crown of poppies left by the British, the place is looked after by an Argentine resident and two hours later Cardoso was at the British cemetery in San Carlos where some combatants are buried: Colonels, captains, mechanical engineers, doctors, “damn it if this was an unequal war over this territory!”

On the way back Cardoso says he came across a bulldozer working on the road and another one slightly modified in the adjoining field looking out for the antipersonnel mines from thirty years ago, planted like seed beds. He also visited Goose Green, scene of a bloody battle at the beginning of the war.

But “I didn’t come here to validate or repudiate at all. I came to meet a peaceful population of sheep-farmers and fishermen. They were not waiting for me to support them. I don’t have a single difference with my (National) party which in office or in the opposition has always defended Argentine sovereign claims over the Islands”.

Cardoso adds he does not pretend to debate, much less with ‘intolerants’ on the Malvinas issue. “Just to find out and learn about this people, many of whom has studied and lived in Montevideo, others who because of trade know every corner of our Montevideo. British, Argentine, Chileans, Colombians, Uruguayans and those born in the Islands live peacefully and in harmony a simple life with no laments”.

“I didn’t ask the Argentines living about their opinions, I’m not here for that”, underlines Cardoso who then praises Beatriz Sarlo and Graciela Rohmer, two Argentine professionals visiting the Islands “to build bridges among peoples, an admirable example”.

Likewise Cardoso points out that, surprisingly, the flight which brought him to the Falklands took off from Argentine soil. “This is not possible from Montevideo despite claims for such a flight. A few months ago Uruguayan business people came to the Islands for business opportunities as well as academics and agronomists”.

As testimony of longstanding relations between peoples and beyond barriers the same way in Montevideo “we had a Lafone Plaza, here in the Islands they have Lafonia, born out of the same person, in Montevideo and Malvinas.

“I’m a pacifist, instead of travelling to Aruba, a Dutch protectorate in black America I came to the cold of the south. A cold increased by the blockade so much rejected by all Uruguayans in any latitude but a bit ignored around these places”.

Finally the Uruguayan lawmaker subtly replies to Defence Minister Fernandez Huidobro, a former guerrilla and admirer of Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez.

Cardoso points out that the battles for territories in key geopolitical points or of economic value or simple expansionist occupation have been a routine in mankind history. “They are built on the dead, spilt blood, destroyed families, persecuted or confined families. Currently millions wander in the world with out knowing where to go, they are the invisible children of war.

“But those of us who believe in peace do not encourage confrontation promoted by the foul-mouthed who trigger spirits, create orphans and grave stones.

“I came to Malvinas and some of those who (in Uruguay) practice insults and provocations have as is their style started distilling intolerance and of course insults.

“I’m returning to my people quietly with no fuss after having met a population that lives without keys or railings, which has an admirable and free health scheme, basic free education which I wished they would continue their university studies in our America.
“A sheep farmers and fishing people in a landscape that routine is only broken by an excess of cemeteries”, concludes Cardoso.

PD: regarding the foul language of the Minister of Defence, let somebody else address them, I don’t have time to lose.