Argentine ‘Peace’ Delegation Condemned by Argentine Veterans
The Argentine ‘Peace’ delegation got a dose of their own medicine on their return to Argentina when they were met by a mass protest from Argentine 1982 war veterans, condemning them for equating Argentine war dead with the victims of the Junta’s murder campaign.
Members of the so-called ‘Peace’ delegation to the Falkland Islands, led by Argentine Nobel Prize winner, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, must have been surprised on their return to Buenos Aires by the hostile protests from Argentine 1982 war veterans from the ‘Commission for the Families of the Fallen’. They faced noisy ‘scratches’ (mass protest) with placards and loudhailers – and Esquivel was reportedly chased to his car.
This did not stop them from complaining to the Argentine media about the treatment that they claimed to have received whilst they were in the Falkland Islands. But even they only alleged verbal remarks, not the shouted protests from their own compatriots. One suspects that they were annoyed by the indifference with which they were received – and it is clear that the Falkland Islanders exhibited commendable restraint. It is significant that the CPM delegation refused to attend the briefing about the Falkland Islands laid on for the Argentine visitors (with two MLAs and two FIG Directors present). Most of the swimmers and other Argentine visitors turned up – but the ‘Peace’ delegation saw no reason to expose their misconceptions about the Islands to a dose of reality. Instead, they trotted out the usual Argentine propaganda about the militarisation of the South Atlantic and the ‘colonial’ system of government in the Islands.
Nora Cortinas, the elderly co-founder of the ‘Mothers of the Plaze de Mayo’, complained bitterly about having to show her passport on entry to the Falkland Islands. Quite frankly, notwithstanding the respect that must be shown to any elderly traveler, that must give most Islanders a certain degree of satisfaction. There is no need for them to return to the Falklands.
