Argentina commemorated on Saturday national heroes who fought for the sovereignty of the Malvinas Islands in the historic battle with the British, as leftist politicians urged President Mauricio Macri not to fail the country in the fighting for Argentina’s claim to the territory 34 years after the conflict.
The country’s annual Day of Veteran’s and the Fallen of the Malvinas War marks the anniversary Argentina’s 1982 occupation of the islands that launched the 10-week Malvinas War against the United Kingdom, which seized the archipelago in 1833.
Argentina lost, surrendering after 74 days of conflict that claimed the lives of 649 Argentine soldiers, over twice the death toll suffered by British forces, who lost 255. Three islanders were also killed in the brief but bloody war.
Macri paid homage to the victims and veterans of the conflict in Buenos Aires’ portside Retiro neighborhood, laying flowers at the cenotaph in the San Martin Plaza.
Meanwhile, the Front for Victory coalition of former leftist presidents Cristina Fernandez and Nestor Kirchner expressed concern over the Foreign Ministry’s “inaction” in the face of the U.K.’s recent dismissal of a U.N. ruling that could otherwise open the door for new negotiations about governance of the islands.
“The only way to obtain results in issues of foreign policy is steadfastness and persistence in the fundamental guidelines of our historical positions over the question of the Malvinas Islands,” the Front for Victory wrote in a statement released Saturday. “That’s why we, the Front for Victory bloc, demand the executive branch revise its actions related to the Malvinas cause in order to not retrace the virtuous path taken over past decade.”
This year’s Malvinas War anniversary comes just days after the United Nations made a decision that could help Argentina increase its territorial waters by 35 percent. The U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf unanimously ratified Argentina’s claim to expand the official area of its shelf in the South Atlantic, where the contested Malvinas Islands are located.
But the U.K. has downplayed the significance of the announcements, making it unlikely the U.N. decision will hold much weight in the dispute without Argentina putting up a fight.
The Malvinas Islands are known as the Falklands in the U.K.