Controversy over the Malvinas discourse in the nation …

"It 's a lie, it hurts to be denied.We were 1485 (called)," said the president of the National Association of Veterans of the Falklands War of the United States. Argentine air force, which has been disputed with the two former officers of this force and whose presentation took place at the National College of Buenos Aires (CNBA) in a scandal. As part of the celebration of the Independence Day, the exoficiales presented, at the invitation of the authorities of the institution, a video "which contained religious elements not admitted to a public and secular school" and refused to answer students' questions about the missing. in the last civil-military dictatorship. In this context, they tried to explain that they would not talk about the torture suffered by the Colimbas because, according to them, the Air Force had not involved conscripts during the war, which caused a scandal. Parents and students asked the presbytery for an explanation. Before a Page consultation | 12, a presbytery spokesman said that "at the present time, we do not receive any statement".

Julio Herrera Vidal, president of the badociation that brings together the air force conscripts who participated in the Falklands war, was informed of the act committed by a WhatsApp group that He talks with other ex-fighters. "The actions of the air force are shameful, the fact that we are not recognized by the same soldiers who have led thousands of young people without much preparation for the war hurts us a lot. still, knowing that many comrades have died or committed suicide after suffering, "said the former conscript of Page | 12.

According to Herrera Vidal, 1485 youth called from the air force were sent to participate in the Falklands war. "We fought from the 6 bases of the South Air Force in Patagonia, as there were no landing runways for the Malvinas fighter planes: Trelew, Comodoro Rivadavia, San Julian, Santa Cruz, Rio Gallegos and Rio Grande, from where came all air attacks on the English fleet and all ground attacks once the British landed at San Carlos Bay. these six bases, 70% of the food, medicine and all that was sent to the Malvinas are also out, "he said.

Herrera Vidal had completed high school in the United States and was planning to continue his studies at Harvard with another scholarship he had won. His plans changed course in 1982, when he was called to do his military service. "With the shock I had after the war, I could never go back," he lamented.

About what happened on Thursday in Buenos Aires, when two exoficiales badured that there were no conscripts in the air force and that They did not consider themselves qualified to speak about the torture inflicted on young people who took part in the war confrontation, said Herrera Vidal: "the military government was then busy (1982) to distort what had happened during the war and the rest of the military lie hid us, what happens is that the money that was going to be for us, the soldiers fighting in the air force, is not charged only by the officers and NCOs, who were members of the Force by their choice, by career, but we went because we were obliged by military service, we were free employees of the government and we were 39, planes right to nothing. "

For Herrera Vidal, it is "unfair that only pilots are recognized as veterans" because "without the soldiers, the war would have lasted one day". "I think we do not deserve this hiding, the attacks that the pilots could make were obtained thanks to us, the soldiers, if we were not there, who defended the bases? Who cooked?", A- he asked. "We even had to face the anti-aircraft fight," he said, for "those who say there was no battle on the continent".

With regard to the questions posed by the students about the torture suffered by the Colimbas and the fact that the exoficiales refused to answer, arguing that the Air Force did not have any conscripted during the conflict, Herrera Vidal stated that "at the base of Trelew, a colleague received a weapon to the head to be Jewish.You can not imagine how he was abused to profess his religion.It was a child and he was traumatized for life. "To another young man, to Río Gallegos," they tied him, as if he were on a cross, and let him out with ten degrees below zero, in his underpants, "recalled the ex-conscript.

He concluded: "They (the Air Force commanders) thought we were going to be 18 years old all our lives, but today we are 56 and 57 and we will not be beaten anymore. with 37 years of lies that led many of our colleagues to the grave without deserved recognition. "

On Thursday 11, at the school's Aula Magna, the fourth and fifth year students of the afternoon service went to the ceremony which was held in commemoration of the Independence Day of Argentina. After singing the national anthem, school authorities introduced two former air force officers who fought in the Falklands. After watching a 20-minute video that "contained religious elements not allowed in a public and secular school," veterans told students that they wanted to "do something more interactive" and answer questions. about their activity.

"A comrade stopped and asked them what they thought of the Colimbas who had been taken to war without prior training and the 30,000 missing from the dictatorship," said a CNBA student. One of the exoficiales replied that the students "deserved the truth and not a political opinion" and that they were not able to comment on the torture suffered by the colimbas during the Falklands War, because the air force did not appeal to conscripts, unlike the army and the navy. "They did not mention the missing people, they wanted to talk about their concrete experience, but at no time did they say" dictatorship "or" process, "but talked about the" government of the day, " criticized the student who, along with other students, parents and teachers still waiting response from the rector of the institution, Valeria Bergman.