José Honorio Ortega, the only soldier from Santa Cruz who fell during the Malvinas War, was honored on Saturday in Río Gallegos, where a monument was inaugurated in his memory, during a ceremony that was attended by local authorities, military personnel , relatives and veterans who fought in the 1982 conflict with Great Britain for the sovereignty of the archipelago.
The conscript was the son of a marriage made up of María Cárcamo and José Ortega and was born in the capital of the Patagonian province in July 1963, and at the time hostilities with Great Britain began, he was serving Military Service in the Sarmiento 25th Infantry Regiment. (Chubut).
Ortega was deployed to the Malvinas along with that unit after the landing of Argentine troops on the islands as part of the so-called Operation Rosario, and he died 40 years ago when he was hit by a British bombardment.
The remains of this soldier were identified in January 2018, thanks to the work carried out by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Eaaf) in the Malvinas Islands.
This ceremony was attended by the parents of Ortega and his twin daughters, Carolina and Melisa, who were born two months after the death of this Army officer.
After the intonation of the stanzas of the Argentine National Anthem, the monument to Ortega was unveiled and the mayor of Río Gallegos, Pablo Grasso, delivered a miniature replica of the statue to his parents.
In a dialogue with Télam, the president of the War Veterans Center that bears his name, Fernando Alturria, expressed that “this tribute was a pending debt and today that is why we are overwhelmed with emotion.”
“Today, 40 years ago, José died and became a national hero. Our province will never forget him,” Alturria assured.
