MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina to sack whoever used the “Falklands” in an official document

Referring to the Malvinas as “Falkland” was a “malicious” and “serious” error, the Argentina authorities claimed

Argentina's Defense Ministry will be sacking the person responsible for using the word “Falklands” on the Argentina.gob.ar website when it should have been “Malvinas.”

When reporting on Foreign Minister Diana Mondino's meeting with International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Deputy Vice Presiddent Gilles Carbonier regarding a humanitarian project to further identify the bodies of soldiers fallen during the 1982 South Atlantic conflict, the Islands were referred to as Falklands for a short time on Oct. 22 until the case was detected and corrected. Nevertheless, it did spark a controversy between the two ministries involved.

The message read: “The Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs Diana Mondino received this Wednesday, October 16, Gilles Carbonnier, vice-president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to discuss the resumption of the negotiations of the Third Humanitarian Project Plan, aimed at the identification of the Argentine combatants who fell in the Falklands/Malvinas Islands during the South Atlantic conflict in 1982,″ which is fully compliant with ICRC norms indicating that when referring to territories claimed by any two parties, the French-language version of both names are to be used in alphabetical order.

However, the Foreign Ministry described the case as an ”extremely serious“ error and insisted assured that the communiqué's original wording dating back to Oct. 16 only included the word ”Malvinas,“ blaming Defense for it. ”If they get me the person who sent that, he [or she] will be fired tomorrow,“ sources close to Mondino told TN that she said.

”Regarding the malicious version published on the government website, we are identifying the person responsible to fire him. We will go against anyone who, guided by leftist ideology, attempts against the interests of the Argentine people. The Malvinas are, were and will always be Argentine, we are working to recover them,” a Foreign Ministry source was quoted by TN as saying.

Es absolutamente falso que desde Cancillería haya salido un comunicado donde llamamos a nuestras Islas Malvinas por otro nombre.

Respecto de la versión maliciosa publicada en la web del gobierno, estamos identificando al responsable para despedirlo. Vamos a ir a fondo contra…

— Diana Mondino (@DianaMondino) October 23, 2024

“It was not us, it was them. The communication was only copied and pasted from what came from the Foreign Ministry. It was done by the Coordination of Veterans of the Malvinas War,” the outlet also quoted Denfense soource as arguing.

In the end, an administrative dossier was opened against the head of the Malvinas War Veterans Coordination who uploaded the statement with the word “Falklands,” TN posted, adding that such a person who remained nameless would be dismissed.

“In view of the malicious act carried out in a communiqué in which reference is made to the Malvinas Islands with a name not recognized by our country that affects the sensibility of all Argentines, the Minister of Defense Luis Petri instructed that a summary be carried out urgently to the person in charge to immediately disassociate him,” the Defense Ministry stated.