MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Malvinas-distance electronic boards to be posted in Buenos Aires City

The purpose of the boards is to ensure the “Malvinas cause” remains ever present in “the society's collective” and displayed to millions of tourists said councillor Fuks

Buenos Aires City legislative council approved on Thursday a bill by which road electronic boards must be posted in the Argentine capital indicating direction and distance to the Falklands/Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, which are claimed by Argentina.

 The initiative was sponsored by three council members belonging to President Cristina Fernández Victory Front, and has the purpose of ensuring that the “Malvinas cause” remains ever present in “the collective mind of our society”.

The bill mentions 16 electronic boards in the Buenos Aires financial and main shopping district, plus one in each of the city's boroughs, indicating in each case with an arrow the direction and distance to the insular territories Argentina claims sovereignty over.

“Our city is visited by millions of tourists and not only domestic visitors but also from all over the world, so these electronic boards will show to our visitors a characteristic of our identity as 'porteños' and as Argentines committed to the sovereignty of our Malvinas and other Islands” said councilor Gabriel Fuks.

He added that the initiative looks to bolster with the street electronic boards that “our memories are alive and acknowledge that the Malvinas, Georgia and Sandwich islands are part of our national territorial integrity and incorporate Buenos Aires to the same initiative which has been undertaken by so many other Argentine cities”.