MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas’ radicals protest and pledge to end Lan Chile air link with the Falklands

Resistencia Malvinas burning Union Jacks in front of Lan Chile’s offices in downtown Buenos Aires

The Argentine radical group ‘Resistencia Malvinas’ protested on Thursday midday before the Lan Chile offices in downtown Buenos Aires to demand the end of the weekly air link between Punta Arenas and the Falkland Islands. The group led by Toni Lopez and with drums banging displayed banners, distributed pamphlets and burnt Union Jacks.

Speaking after the peaceful protest Lopez said this was the third time they had marched before the Lan Chile offices, and will continue to do so for the rest of the year every Wednesday until “Chile understands it must cut all links with the Malvinas usurpers; it’s time they support with practical actions Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Malvinas”.

This week’s protest took place on Thursday because Wednesday coincided with May first, Workers Day, and on 2 May was the 31st anniversary of the sinking of the cruiser ‘General Belgrano’ with the loss of 323 lives, by a Royal Navy nuclear powered submersible, HMS Conqueror, in the South Atlantic in 1982.

“We also marched to remember and honour the victims of that war crime which was the sinking of the General Belgrano outside the exclusion zone imposed by the British usurpers, and we will not rest until justice is done with those guilty of the war crime, even when the culprits, Margaret Thatcher and her ally Augusto Pinochet are dead”, pledged Lopez.

“Thatcher ordered the sinking of the cruiser when peace was at hand’s reach. She gave the order to make sure there was war and peace was the first victim, and that is a war crime”, said the Argentine agitator emphasizing that “all those boys, conscripts who gave their lives need the peace of justice and we will give it to them”.

Lopez went on to say that the Malvinas war was not only fought in the Islands, “we now know from released documents that the English downed an Argentina helicopter in Comodoro Rivadavia and that they had to crash land in Chile, their ally, after a failed commando raid on Rio Grande”.

“We are confident our campaign to cut the air link of Lan to Malvinas is going to succeed as has succeeded the campaign against cruises calling in the Malvinas. The usurpers themselves have admitted that this season the cruise activity was down 50% and they lost 8 million dollars, much of which went to Argentine ports. This campaign took off in 2011, and supported with the Gaucho Rivero bill bars English flagged or convenience flagged vessels from calling in Argentine ports if they also have links with the British in Malvinas” explained Lopez.

He said that the Gaucho Rivero bill is already effective in Tierra del Fuego, Santa Cruz, Chubut, Rio Negro and Buenos Aires provinces, while the City of Buenos Aires council is discussing the matter.

“The Lan Chile link to Malvinas is the last of the terrible accords worked out by (former president Carlos) Menem and (Foreign minister Guido) Di Tella during that period of surrender to the usurpers which they called ‘carnal relations’ and only ended helping the English and their conquest strategy”, underlined Lopez.

“You can be sure we are going to knock down that last symbol of that ignominious period, the air link to Malvinas by Lan Chile, sooner or later it will cease. Besides we trust the current government will take the necessary measures in support of that goal”, concluded Toni Lopez, head of Resistencia Malvinas, which has also been involved in violent actions against Falklands’ related business agents in Buenos Aires.