42 years on from the start of the South Atlantic Conflict

42 years after the South Atlantic conflict, I would like to begin by remembering all the people, islanders, Argentinians and British, who lost their lives as a result of that unfortunate conflict, their families and loved ones, the wounded, those who still suffer and those who have taken their own lives as a result of the trauma and pain suffered during the war. 

Much has been discussed about the motivations behind the start of the war. It is very likely that military dictatorship that had ruled Argentina since March 1976 sought to regain the prestige it had lost after the brutal represion in wich tens of thousands of people were kidnapped, tortured and killed. 

But whatever the motivations, there is no doubt that the dictatorship's military initiated the war on the basis of a crass strategic assessment that led Argentina to a defeat whose consequences still linger on. The military dictatorship that, in order to counteract Soviet expansion in Latin America, had introduced state terrorism, was initiating a military conflict with the second military power of the Atlantic Alliance at a critical moment in the Cold War. 

On 14 June 1982 the Argentine troops surrendered and the South Atlantic conflict came to an end. The military government, weakened by its defeat, came to end, and on 28 January 1983 it called democratic elections in which the Radical Civil Union candidate, Raúl Alfonsín, was elected president of the Argentine people. 

The new democratic government was burdened with the heavy legacy of international isolation due to the war and the very serious human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. Internally, although there was joy at the return of democracy, there was also mourning for the dead, the emptiness and uncertainty of the disappeared and the trauma caused by state terrorism. 

Even so, the longest and most stable period of democracy that Argentina had ever known was beginning. Gradually, Argentina's democracy was consolidated and the fear of the usual military pronouncements dissipated. Today, the defence of democracy and human rights has become a cause that unites the vast majority of Argentines.