MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cristina Fernández blasts UK and NATO on Malvinas invasion anniversary

The Argentine president during her 30 minute speech at Malvinas Hall next to her full cabinet

Argentine President Cristina Fernández on the 32nd anniversary of the Malvinas Islands invasion by Argentine forces which triggered war (and defeat) with the UK, questioned the British government for not abiding by UN resolutions calling for Falklands sovereignty talks and suggested UK should be less involved in wars and more in looking after its own people.

 She also unveiled a 50 Pesos bill dedicated to 'Malvinas Argentinas' to be soon issued and blasted London for keeping 'NATO's most powerful and armed base' in the Falklands.

The rally and a 30 minute presidential speech on Wednesday April 2nd, took place in the Malvinas Argentinas Hall of Casa Rosada (Executive palace) and was broadcast on national televisions with attendance from the full ministerial cabinet, provincial governors, mayors, MPs, social and union leaders and war veterans.

The Malvinas Argentinas Hall of Casa Rosada was inaugurated by Cristina Fernández in 2012. On August 24 that year the head of state was handed seven Argentine flags that were taken to the Falklands Islands in 1966 by an armed ultra-nationalist group, under the so called Cóndor Operation involving the hijacking of a commercial aircraft which was forced to land in the Islands.

As part of this year's ”Day of the Veterans and Fallen in the Falklands War”, the president presented one of the seven flags at Wednesday's ceremony that from now on will flutter in the Malvinas Argentinas Hall.

“History of humankind clearly shows that colonial enclaves (such as Malvinas) end up being recovered sooner or later. I am confident in the people, in history” said the president as she began to deliver her speech.

The Argentine leader revealed that thanks to the strong support from Venezuela's 'eternal president' Hugo Chavez, Central America and the Caribbean countries now are strongly aligned behind Argentina in its sovereignty claims over the Malvinas, contributing to 'a growing world consensus” on the question.

Cristina Fernandez then announced that in an effort to identify the 123 soldiers buried in the Falklands Darwin Argentine cemetery that remain unidentified, NN, with the help of the Red Cross and Argentine scientists, blood samples had been collected from possible families for DNA checking in the near future.

“We have the moral and patriotic duty to honor the memory of heroes, the Malvinas heroes” and if there is something we can exhibit to history is that we are a government that does and commits everyday” underlined the president.

Further on Cristina Fernandez accused the UK of an “immense military display” in the disputed territories, “violating” the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Tlatelolco Treaty) that which “all American countries expect for those in the North have signed”.

She also claimed that natural resources prospects in Malvinas Islands do not represent the British main interests in the contested area.

“The truth about Malvinas is that it represents a NATO military base in the South Atlantic that is the truth that can no longer remain hided,” the president said and provided a detailed list of British military capability starting with the electronic intelligence systems that “control all the air traffic in the region”.

To this she added 1500-2000 men deployed to the Islands out of a population of 3,000; a frigate; an icebreaker; a nuclear attack submarine and aircraft armed with long-range ballistic missiles “that could reach several areas in the Southern Cone and even Ecuador” among other British military resources in the contested area.

“The British government does not break down its military expenses in Malvinas, it is a country that is usually on the attacker side, almost always in the front of conflicts. It would be good to wage war less and dedicate more efforts to the British people, facing severe social cuts and severe unemployment problems, particularly 20% among young people” Cristina Fernández affirmed.

“The military expense in Malvinas accounts for 31,000 dollars per British citizen, that to keep a military base more than 13,000 km away (from London).”

And on dialogue, the Argentine president “there has been no international forum that does support the UN resolution which simply calls on the US to sit and discuss the issue of the Malvinas sovereignty question”.

Renewing her position against the “double-standard” of world powers she mentioned only some weeks ago during an official tour to France, the Argentine leader said that the referendum in both Crimea and Malvinas were a show of how “the relation of forces” rule the world.

“International law and the respect of human rights, peace, territorial integrity” don't have much to say in today's world, according to Cristina Fernandez.

“It is the law of the strongest. That who can trample over somebody’s head goes ahead and does it,” the Argentine leader assured – in Paris, CFK blasted the US and Europe for rejecting the Crimea vote and ratifying instead the 2013 referendum in Malvinas where Falkland Islanders decided to remain a British Overseas Territory.

“We continue to appeal to abandon the double-standard that becomes actually a boomerang because the only thing that allows global society to live rationally, to prevent deaths, conflicts and misery is that a country’s rules become international rules that all countries respect. That is what the charter of the United Nations say,” the president added mentioning the UN resolutions that urge London to sit at the negotiating table with Buenos Aires and that the coalition government of British Prime Minister David Cameron continues to dismiss, based on a self-determination pledge.

“Who do they want to convince they will respect the law if they do not comply with these resolutions?”