Identification of fallen soldiers in the Malvinas: chronicle of an unforgettable day for 65 relatives

(Sent to the Falkland Islands) It was nine o'clock in the morning at Darwin Cemetery, in the Falkland Islands. Mobile phone thermometers reflect about 3 ° C, but it's not cold. There is almost no wind and the sun has managed to ruin the threat of precipitation and abundance of clouds. Dozens of knees fall on the black marble, located on white stones and in front of a cross of the same color. The silence is barely disturbed by guttural sounds of anxiety. There are no screams, no exclamations. The cemetery breathes the sound of drowned tears.

In the space of 5 minutes, about 65 family members had just arrived in this endless prairie area and still life to find loved ones they had been looking for 37 years. These are the members of 22 families who could talk to her, leave flowers, flags, rosaries, postcards, old letters, the ashes of a deceased mother, portraits, old photos and even current photos of her family. children, messages armed with small white stones ranging from the square to the correct grave These families traveled from different parts of the country to reconnect with the 22 fallen soldiers in the Falklands who were identified in the past year.

The feeling of each of the protagonists is unique. This is not transferable. In fact It is impossible to take a dimension of what is at stake for the first few seconds between these women and octogenarians and the graves where their children are, which in many cases was last seen between the ages of 18 and 20 . But it is possible to conceive the magnitude of the event. Yes, it is possible to witness an act that is historic for Argentina and that constitutes a hinge for the lives of these people.

The eyes of the protagonists are exploited. Swollen eyelids, red noses and grimaces that converge sadness of the irrefutable confirmation of the death of his parent and the happiness of being able to find the body, to be able to pray, speak or whisper to the correct gravestone.

The first ones 15 minutes of extreme emotion were poles apart from the festive atmosphere that reigned 13 hours ago, in the basement of the hotel El Conquistador, in the federal capital. There was no trace of this celebration and relaxation at the downtown hotel while they ate ravioli cazuelitas with pink sauce and sausage and charcuterie tables. The cemetery's climate was not at all related to what the families had experienced moments before, during the micro-trips from the Mount Pleasant Military Airport to the cemetery.

This road in the middle of this green landscape, pajoso, opaque, and in which, during the 40 minutes of travel, only hundreds of sheep were seen. Once this tour is done, it is impossible to be surprised by listening to the statistics of local citizens in the islands: there are about 170 sheep per inhabitant of Malin.

They spent 20 minutes from the arrival of the parents at Darwin cemetery and, although some were recomposed, the scene did not change too much. This intimate bond between these mothers, sisters, parents, uncles, nieces and graves still prevails. On the tombstones, there is no military rank, one finds only the names of the men who rest there.. It's not time to remember military epics or the circumstances of death. It is time to recover this link that existed in the houses, This factor that neither the comrades of the front have come to know thoroughly.

"It's family day, it's Mother's Day, there's nothing more than that, and you have to respect it. It is very difficult to be able to interpret the depth of what these people are currently experiencing "said Geoffrey Cardozo, a former British military officer who, in 1983, had the responsibility to take charge of the dead Argentine soldiers scattered in the Falklands and who contributed the first grain of sand to the creation of Darwin's cemetery.

Even without the wind starting to blow hard, you can see Cristina Lera, with his 83 years, in a wheelchair and having severe hearing difficulties, kisses his hand at the grave of his son Luis Guillermo Sevilla, in the tomb located in column 8 of row 2 of sector A. Previously, he had been waiting at Ezeiza airport and traveled in the private plane that the Andean company had offered to the Delegation with the picture frame of his son in his hand.

At about 25 meters, on sector B, there are two women seated. Both with black glbades to cover the swelling of the eyes of so many tears. They are Nora, the younger sister of Víctor Rodríguez, which is in the grave 11 of row 5 and Mabel Godoywho was his girlfriend at the time when the native of Lomas de Zamora was sent to the war.

"It's like a way to close the whole circle. Hatred, anger, resentment, fighting and anguish that there was in those 37 years, it was time to find our peace with Victor. And all that ends with a deep sense of love, "says Mabel Godoy. Infobae.

The 53 year old woman She was Rodriguez's girlfriend in 1982. They had barely been together for a year. They had met during a "spring festival" and had consolidated their relationship during a walk in Luján.

A few years after the death of Rodriguez in the Falklands, Mabel married another man and had two daughters, who are now 27 and 28 years old. However, just two years ago, he was worried about the body of the Regiment 7 soldier. While reading a newspaper in La Plata, he became interested in the news that a Banfield Public School had set up a naming one of his main plays "Víctor Rodríguez". He made contact with the driver of the measure, a former partner of Victor in action, and came to Nora, whom they accompanied at the time of DNA testing, in 2017. The Rodriguez ID was finalized in November of last year.

It's been more than half an hour since the first contact and gradually relaxation symptoms. Smiles are presented and a few moments ago bodies were scattered on the grounds of the Darwin cemetery. Prisoners of sorrow, the climate has now changed for the first smiles and thank you. So, the veteran Julio Aro and the journalist Gaby Cociffi, two of the main promoters of the identification project of the then "Argentine soldiers only known to God", crossed the tombs by receiving cuddles and caressing the backs of their loved ones who needed them.

Shortly before a bagpiper The Royal Regiment of the Scottish Guard will sing the sound of "Lament", the figure of Lorna Márquezwho with his brother gave his uncle Rubén Márquez perhaps the most peculiar offering of the whole Malvinian morning: he threw only near the grave 9 of row 5 in sector B Ashes of his grandmother and the mother of the soldier killed in action.

"Over the years, the demand of our grandmother Elda has become a clbadic." While she had been searching for so long for the place where her son had been buried, she repeated us again and again. "If something happens to me and I die before we find it, I want them to believe me and bring my ashes to its place."Lorna explained to Infobae.

"For this reason, this trip was for us the closing of a double circle. On one side, we were finally able to find where our uncle was and on the other, we could realize our grandmother's wish. We did not know if we were going to be able to do it, and it's very exciting, "she reflected in tears.Edma died 11 years ago, but once the possibility of body identification de Marquez introduced himself, the family chooses to exhume the body and put it in cream today. the two will rest together.

Darwin's graveyard is basically in the middle of nowhere. There is no internet signal for cell phones. There is not even a source of electricity. That is why, for the speech of Father Ponciano Acosta, accompanied by his couple from Malvinas, Father Ambrosio, The battery of a local 4 × 4 truck was used as a source of power to the speaker.

The cemetery has suddenly changed its image over the years. In 1983, half of the 237 crosses were marked with the tombstone "Argentinean Soldier Known to God Alone". Today, there are only 10 of them. The humanitarian project plan was essential as, in just over two years, it was possible to solve the mystery about the identity of 112 soldiers out of 122 who were still not recognized in early 2017.

Exactly, the final realization of the project was also based on the shoulders of the entrepreneur Eduardo Eurnekian, who commanded Corporación América and with the collaboration of people like Matías Patanian or Martín Eurnekian, parental travel transfers, both today and March 16, 2018, have become a reality.

While Ponciano offered his words to the large number of faithful, two women remained motionless in front of their parent's gravestone. Both were in front of a black marble with the inscription "Argentine soldier alone …", but who carried a white sheet held by stones. The name of Carlos Alberto Frías was written on the paper. And this mother and daughter who wore fluorescent wool hats fuchsia all day were, almost involuntarily, two of the big protagonists of the day.

Until Tuesday afternoon, about twenty families would be reunited with the soldiers identified over the past year. However, on the night of the same day, the Malvinas Families' Commission and the Human Rights Secretariat reported that two soldiers They had been identified at the last minute. One of them was Frias. For this reason, her sister-in-law Fermina Ojeda and her niece Cynthia Frías have not stopped crying while recounting the surprise.

"We do not want to leave here. We were happy to come to the Malvinas, but we were going for a walk without being sure of where Carlos was. Yesterday, when I received the news, I called my husband, who was in Corrientes and could not come, to warn him. I was crazy to jump on the walls, screaming on the phone. Now, I hope that Carlos' parents and my husband, his brother, will be able to come. They are the ones who need to be here most, "Fermina said in tears.

"This plan is a legacy and a great lesson. Because when we give priority to a sincere dialogue and devoid of political pettiness, positive results are obtained ", in turn reflects the secretary for human rights, Claudio Avruj, who was from the first moment in society and the confinement of parents.

It is noon and Omar Tabárez, who was part of the Argentinean military band at Malvinas, he sings the "Minute of Silence" with the same trumpet that he had lost at the time and which was rendered by a British pair more than two decades later. The musician is nervous, shocked. His exposure lasts only a few seconds. Enough to burst into tears in the end and get lost in a knot of hugs from parents and other veterans invited to the appointment.

The last word is in the hands of Fernanda Araujo, the president of the commission of relatives of the missing of Malvinas and who had the opportunity to know the tomb of his brother Elbio Araujo during the first visit and the reconnaissance trip, March 16, 2018. "This moment is very different from the other, today, I am happy, I do not have this heavy emotional burden on the shoulders, as at previous trip, "he said. Infobae during a brief dialogue on the plane, on a one-way trip to the Malvinas Islands.

Araujo is shown with the microphone and in front of the crowd smiling, strong and especially grateful. In the midst of a climate of similar punishment for the consequences of the war, the deceased's sister again and again emphasizes 112 identifications through dialogue, acceptance of differences and understanding between the parties. "Thank you", was the word that more than once stated during his speech.

And as the clouds begin to cover the Malvinas skies and the terrain remains with this drab and worn-out green, some of the organization's staff are beginning to press the visitors' exit to scream for "getting on the buses , vamoooos, at the microphones. "Apparently, if the time limit of 16 hours is exceeded, The Falklands could be seized by very strong gusts of wind that can prevent the return of nearly 200 people to Ezeiza.

It is 17:01 Wednesday and the last lines are written in the plane for Buenos Aires. The climate in the cabin is plumb. Families sit in their place. The vast majority of them have not slept more than an hour and a half during the last night. The emotional alluvium of the morning has given way to peace. And who writes can not get rid of the image of Cristina Lera, despite the request of the badistants to get on the bus, she remained in her wheelchair, stuck to the black marble with the inscription of the name of Luis Guillermo Sevilla. Like many other octogenarian mothers in the Falkland Islands today, she faced the grave of their children for the first time in their lives. And eventually, it was also the last. How they will have done to overcome this dilemma and get on a bus.