MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine war veterans pepper-sprayed for demanding proper medical care

“There is no point in a big parade on the day of the 40th anniversary when the rest of the year we have no quality of life,” a war veteran complained.

A group of veterans of the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War was repelled with tear gas Wednesday by the Buenos Aires police during a demonstration in front of the PAMI social security agency where they demanded the fulfillment of the medical care program to which they are entitled.

The protesters gathered in front of the PAMI building in the Argentine capital and were pepper-sprayed when they tried to get in.

Ramón De León, president of the center of former combatants of Entre Ríos, said indicated the war veterans were seeking an improvement in their health coverage. “We are looking for PAMI to comply with the benefits that correspond to us. We come from negotiations to negotiations, but they work for a month or two, and then the benefits are cut again.”

PAMI sources claimed the ex-combatants were asking for “a change of structure” within the agency, which insisted it had improved benefits for war veterans over the past two years. “They do not have suspended benefits,” the PAMI sources stressed.

War veterans “are the only ones in PAMI who have priority care” at two leading Buenos Aires clinics, they insisted. “Since our administration, they have family group coverage and continuity in the event of the veteran's death,” a spokesperson for PAMI chief Luana Volnovich was quoted as saying.

The sources added that “ the Malvinas veterans enjoy an exclusive dental program and have a digital booklet with exclusive providers; we also carry out a very strong work with the veterans' centers.”

“At this moment, we are in Buenos Aires, summoned by the National Federation to claim before the Pami, the non-suspension of services and attention and provision of necessary elements for the care of the VG. We also went to the Courts so that they give speed and follow up on the historical claim,” a demonstrator told reporters.

Luis Feldmann, president of the Malvinas San Nicolás Veterans Center, said in a radio interview that this is “the other war”. He regretted that 40 years after the conflict, over 60 years old and with bad quality of life, his comrades had to go out to the streets to demand that their rights be respected.

“There is no point in a big parade on the day of the 40th anniversary when the rest of the year we have no quality of life. There is a lack of medical attention and medicines,” Feldmann stressed.