Half a century ago, on 12 January 1972, a seaplane from the Argentine Air Force landed in Stanley harbor establishing the first regular flight between Comodoro Rivadavia and the Falkland Islands. From then onwards, ”sanitary, passenger and general cargo (mail, fresh food, and medicines) became regular flights”.
A De Havilland Canada DHC-6-200 Twin Otter of Argentina's Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE) took off from Comodoro Rivadavia airport Tuesday morning and landed at Puerto Madryn at 10.10 am in what became the new route's maiden flight.
The following letter was posted in the Penguin News edition of this week, signed by GW Cheek, who for several decades was head of Civil Aviation in the Falkland Islands.
The Argentine government has reclassified the El Palomar air terminal in the province of Buenos Aires as an international airport, responding to requests from aviation firms.The decision was confirmed via a resolution from the National and Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC), issued in the Argentine Official Gazette.
Argentina plans to organize tourist air tours to Antarctica beginning 2018, with the government's airline, LADE, according to official sources from the Tourism and Defense ministries.
The room in Comodoro Rivadavia from where the Argentine Air Force command operated its attacks on the Falkland Islands during the 1982 conflict has been renamed 'Malvinas Hall', and has been declared part of the city's heritage, a place where students and visitors can recall “the ever present Argentine claim over the Malvinas Islands, and the heroism of its pilots”.
Penguin News in its latest edition in a special section, A stroll down memory lane, remembers events of 34 years ago, that is August 1981. And in effect then as now, Argentina calls for more talks, yet again, over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands and emphasizes impatience at the lack of actual progress made.
Falklands born, Argentine citizen Alejandro Betts rejected statements published in Clarin which described his 'Malvinas veteran' pension as 'controversial' and admitted he was surprised, when not startled by the headline display the news was given by the Buenos Aires daily in reference to his activity during the 1982 South Atlantic conflict.
Mr. Alejandro Betts spoke on 20 June this year at the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation, as a petitioner on the “Falklands (Malvinas) Question.” It has been brought to my attention that his speech included a highly distorted account of my visit to the Islands to observe the referendum on behalf of the South Atlantic Council.
FOR the Falklands to be short of bananas as a result of Argentina’s bully-boy blockade and trade restrictions is understandable. For Argentina to run out of bananas you’d think would be impossible in a sub-continent which grows millions of them. But a few weeks ago, they had no bananas in Buenos Aires shops. Only the incompetent Argentines could achieve the impossible. It’s not just bananas they are slipping up on.