MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Digitalized documents on Argentina's Falklands claim made available to the public

Cafiero argued that “activating the memory means informing on our history, which implies understanding the whole historic background, giving us a chance to revalue our claim arguments”

Argentina announced the digitalization of many relevant documents referring to the country's claim over the Falkland/Malvinas Islands and the first delivery has been made available on the web page “Malvinas nos Une” (Malvinas Unites Us).

The initiative from the Argentine Foreign Ministry and the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic Secretariat is in the framework of the “Malvinas 40 years Agenda”, facilitates public access to a raft of archives and documents on the Malvinas Question which are available to read and/or discharge from the web.

The purpose of the measure, as explained by Minister Santiago Cafiero and Guillermo Carmona, head of the Malvinas Secretariat, is to contribute with the release of the fundamental arguments in support of the “legitimate rights of Argentina over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the adjoining maritime and insular spaces.

Cafiero argued that ”activating the memory means informing on our history, which implies having the right tools to our days, and understanding the whole historic background gives us a chance to revalue our claim arguments to defend and reaffirm sovereignty rights“.

”The publication of these documents point to that purpose because understanding where our fundamentals stand is the main foundation of our claim over Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands“.

Note from Edmund Monson, to Francisco Ortiz, to present a formal protest about the map of the Malvinas Isla... by MercoPress on Scribd

The publication available in the web Malvinas Unites Us, is the first chapter of digitalized documents from the XVIII and XIX centuries, belonging to the ”Malvinas History Collection“ from the archives of the Foreign, International Trade and Worship Ministry.

The work was done jointly with CASUR, the Consulting Council on the South Atlantic, the National Office of Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands, DNMAS, and is based on different thematic issues, Origins of the Spanish settlement at Puerto Soledad; the British attack and the expulsion of legitimate Argentine authorities, 1833; First Protests; and Proposals for negotiations in the 1880s.

”The archive contains a most valuable documental heritage, with sound, solid proof of Argentina's sovereignty rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands,“ according to Guillermo Carmona.

”With the publication of this first batch of documents and maps we are honoring the commitment we pledged on taking office, to make available to the different government departments, academic and scientific institutions, Argentine and foreign researchers and the public in general, in a gradual but systematic long term way, the most relevant documents in the Ministry's archives,“ Guillermo Carmona emphasized.

”It's a further effort to make known, and more visible, the Malvinas Question as an official State long term policy, a priority of Argentina's foreign policy and a national cause, regional and global, against colonialism.”

The archives are available on this web.