The Argentinian Defense Ministry has said referring to the Malvinas as “‘Falkland” is a “serious” and “malicious” error, calling for the firing of the person who wrote it on their website.
Friction arose as the Islands were referred to as Falklands on October 22, which was then flagged and changed to Malvinas on the Argentina.gov.ar website.
Falklands was used when someone was reporting on Argentinian Foreign Minister Diana Mondino’s meeting with Gilles Carbonier, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
They were discussing a project to identify the bodies of soldiers fallen during the Falklands War; the report noted this as “the Third Humanitarian Project Plan, aimed at the identification of the Argentine combatants who fell in the Falklands/Malvinas Islands during the South Atlantic conflict in 1982”.
Labelling the conflict this way is fully compliant with the ICRC as when referring to territories claimed by two parties, both names can be used alphabetically.
Malvinas is the Spanish name for the Falkland Islands. The topic of the island’s sovereignty has remained highly controversial, with Argentinian forces invading the British overseas territory of the Falkland Islands in 1982, claiming the land belonged to them.
Diana Mondino has been furious, labelling the situation as an “extremely serious” mistake. The Foreign Minister insisted that any original wording dating back to October 16 only included the word ‘Malvinas’.
Inside sources told TN that she said: “If they get me the person who sent that, he [or she] will be fired tomorrow,
“Regarding the malicious version published on the government website, we are identifying the person responsible to fire him. We will go against anyone who, guided by leftist ideology, attempts against the interests of the Argentine people. The Malvinas are, were and will always be Argentine, we are working to recover them.”
However, sources on the other side have spoken out in defence of the naming, claiming the “communication was only copied and pasted from what came from the Foreign Ministry”, adding that “it was done by the Coordination of Veterans of the Malvinas War”.
An investigation has been opened into the head of the Malvinas War Veterans Coordination, who uploaded the statement using the word Falklands.
