MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

763 Uruguayans volunteered to fight for Argentina during Falklands conflict, reveals Senate bill

“Leaving aside that the conflict was an attempt by the Argentine civic-military dictatorship to overshadow the terrible situation (…), we wish to express our total support”, said lawmakers.

Senators from the Uruguayan opposition coalition Frente Amplio are sponsoring a declaration in support of Argentina and its Falkland Islands' claim, recalling at the same time that 763 Uruguayans, from a very miscellaneous background, had volunteered to join the Argentine Army during the South Atlantic conflict to combat Britain.

“On April 2nd, Argentina commemorates the Day of the Veteran and Fallen in the Malvinas War, as established in Argentine Law 25,370 from 22 November 2000, and coincides with the landing of Argentine troops on 2 April 1982 in the Malvinas Islands, occupied by England since 1833. Leaving aside that the conflict was also an attempt by the Argentine civic-military dictatorship to overshadow the terrible social political and economic situation to which it had conducted the country, we wish to express once again our total support for the legitimate claim of the brotherly country regarding that territory”, says the presentation of the declaration followed by the names of the Senate sponsors.

The text of the bill as a “formal declaration of the Uruguayan government” follows,

The Senate of Uruguay Declares, the acknowledgement to the Malvinas War Veterans and Fallen for their sacrifice on the 40th anniversary of that date, and by extension its recognition to the whole of Argentina; and particularly also to the 763 volunteers from our country who, despite not having been called, they enlisted to defend, next to the Argentine Army the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands.

The standing of the special declaration on the Malvinas Islands Question, from UNASUR, dated 30 November 2012, where ...”State members reiterate their strong support to the legitimate rights of Argentina referred to the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and surrounding maritime spaces in dispute with the UK, reiterate the permanent regional interest that UK resumes negotiations with Argentina to find, in the shortest time possible, a peaceful and definitive solution to this dispute.

Its concern regarding the continued usurpation of the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and its adjoining maritime spaces by the UK, an occupation which constitutes currently one of the last colonial enclaves in Latin America.

Its intention to collaborate through maximum efforts possible, with the highest diplomatic actions undertaken by Argentina with the purpose of recovering those territories, as long as those actions are sustained on peace and International Law principles.

The mentioning of the 763 Uruguayan volunteers who enlisted to combat or support actions related to the conflict is not by chance. In effect the ample spectrum of volunteers includes a former guerrilla member imprisoned by the military and who ex president Jose Mujica later named him his Defense minister. Luis Rosadilla despite being totally against the Argentine dictatorship, offered to join the war as a combatant. Mujica and Rosadilla have been and are very close allies of the Kirchner couple administrations. Another strange character is former military Colonel Jose Nino Gavazzo who died in jail imprisoned for human rights abuses and a declared enemy of Mujica and Rosadilla. Other known persons are Walter Zimmer, a former mayor of the county of Colonia and the current editor of a local newspaper Hugo Manini Rios, closely linked to a former commander in chief of the Uruguayan Army. Quite a miscellaneous crowd.