MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine VP calls for “re-Malvinization” process

The cause of the Malvinas Islands unites Argentina, Villarruel argued

Argentine Vice President Victoria Villarruel was the main speaker at a ceremony in Ushuaia marking the 43rd anniversary of the Falklands/Malvinas War. Her participation at an event separate from the one headed by President Javier Milei in Buenos Aires transpired internal differences within the once successful electoral ticket.

Villarruel -whose late father Eduardo Marcelo Villarruel was an Army captain deployed to the operations theater in 1982- stressed the country's need for a “re-Malvinization” process. She claimed that the Islands' cause united Argentina and criticized the historical “de-Malvinization” campaign that followed the war, which -she said- distorted the military’s role with lies about inefficiency and cowardice, discrediting and disarming the Armed Forces while shaming veterans.

The Senate's Speaker also quoted the Argentine-born Pope Francis to advocate for hemispheric policies to protect the South Atlantic from extracontinental powers exploiting resources and causing ecological damage.

In addition, Villarruel called for continental alliances to ensure regional security and sustainability, warning against foreign wars encroaching on America, which is otherwise a “continent of peace.”

She also noted that Britain, the “enemy,” first acknowledged Argentine soldiers' professionalism despite Argentina's smear campaign on the domestic front.

After thanking Trierra del Fuego [and technically Malvinas Islands] Governor Gustavo Melella for inviting her (when her own party did not), Villarruel regretted that -after defeat- a “process of de-Malvinization began, with a distorted account of the action of our military during the conflict” to “discredit our men in arms” and discredit the Armed Forces.

“There was talk of war boys, inefficiency, cowardice, lack of preparation and all kinds of lies aimed at discrediting our men in arms,” she noted.

“As a result of that machination, war veterans, soldiers, and servicemen were hidden from society. Our Armed Forces were discredited, persecuted and disarmed, and the memory of the war was limited to that of a shameful event that we had to forget,” she also pointed out.

In the face of so many ”hate speeches, (...) the Malvinas cause is the only pledge of unity of our nation,“ the Vice President underlined..

”While Argentina suffers serious levels of poverty, the extra-continental powers are taking from Argentine territory a substantial fortune in food and energy,“ she further noted while highlighting the ”ecological damage“ they are ”causing in the South Atlantic.“

”Responding to the call of Pope Francis, we must implement hemispheric policies that ensure the care of our common home, which is America, in the face of the greed of the extracontinental powers that plunder, degrade, and deplete the riches of our ocean. This requires the implementation of continental policies that protect the sustainability of our resources. For these reasons, everything related to this area compromises national defense and hemispheric defense,“ she went on.

”The security of the South Atlantic cannot be left in the hands of an extra-continental power. The challenge demands agreements between countries of our continent to set hemispheric defense policies,“ Villarruel argued.

”In Europe and Asia, there are wars for energy and food. The Pope said that there is a world war in parts. America is a continent of peace, we do not want them to bring their wars to our region,“ she added.

Quoting Francis again, she insisted that ”this is the challenge of the present and of the future in the South Atlantic.“

”Our country must define a clear and unambiguous policy of national defense and defense of its interests in the region, establishing alliances with the other American nations in a true hemispheric policy,” the Senate's Speaker remarked.

Last year, Milei and Villarruel participated together in the traditional April 2 ceremony.