MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Defense Minister says Argentine “will recover the Malvinas” with region's help

In January 1833 a foreign power usurped the islands, Taiana stressed

Argentina's Defense Minister Jorge Taiana Saturday said his country would “recover” the Malvinas/Falkland Islands “with support from the region.” He added that “without patriotism, there will be no recovery of the Malvinas.”

Taiana insisted Argentina would recover the Malvinas, Sandwich, and South Georgias Islands thanks to the “support” of Latin America and remarked that the sovereignty claim has been a “State policy” since 1833.

“We are going to recover the Malvinas with the support of the region, of Latin America because everyone will understand that the British presence emphasizes the usurpation of natural resources,” he underlined.

“In these seas so complicated, so full of pirates, it is always better to sail accompanied,” during a ceremony in which tribute was paid to ten war veterans of 1982.

Taiana also underscored that “without patriotism, there will be no recovery of the Malvinas”, and considered it “a shame that a power with such a privileged situation of veto power in the UN Security Council does not agree to respect international law and refuses to comply with the request of the United Nations to sit down to discuss sovereignty over the islands.”

The Minister commented that “no Argentine government of any political color has ever recognized the legitimacy of that usurpation,” since “the claim made by the government of Brigadier General Juan Manuel de Rosas to the present”.

Rosas was Governor of the Argentine Province of Buenos Aires between 1829 and 1832, and again between 1835 and 1852. With no federal government, the Governor of Buenos Aires had been entrusted with handling the then-Confederation's foreign affairs. After being overthrown in 1852, he fled to England. He died in Southampton in 1877.

Taiana also praised the former combatants: “You are a living example of the struggle in defense of the homeland. You remind us of the obligation we have to all those who remained there. You fought with courage for the homeland and gave everything.”

He added that “this is not a struggle that began in 1982, but in January 1833, when a foreign power usurped the islands. We have faith and hope that we are going to recover the Malvinas.”

The ten decorated veterans were retired colonels Daniel Esteban and Horacio Sánchez Mariño; former conscript Oscar Poltronieri; Rear Admiral Carlos Castro Madero, survivor of the ARA General Belgrano battleship; Captain Roberto Ulloa; Warrant Officer Carlos Sini; Brigadiers Ruben Norberto Dimeglio and Ernesto Ureta; Warrant Officer Mario Rodríguez and Commander General José Spadaro.