The national deputy of the Front of All (FdT) Victoria Tolosa Paz and his peer and ex-combatant Aldo Adolfo Leiva presented this Thursday a bill of “Historic Repair of Malvinas” to grant a benefit to those who, in compliance with the Compulsory Military Service Law, participated in the 1982 war.
The dissemination of the project was carried out at a press conference held in the White Room of the Chamber of Deputies, which included the participation of Ernest Alonsothe Malvinas Islands of La Plata Ex-Combatants Center (CECIM), and the Director of the Malvinas Islands Museum, Edgardo Esteban, among others.
In justifying his initiative, Tolosa Paz stated: “I apologize on behalf of the national legislators that in more than 40 years, in 480 months, in more than 500 ordinary sessions, we have not had the courage to plant this flag.” .
“It is now, it is now the time to move forward and pay off our debts”added the deputy and recalled the dialogue she had with Aldo Leiva -the first ex-combatant deputy- at the time of drafting the project that now seeks to become law.
In @DiputadosTV I spoke about the historic day lived in @DiputadosAR. Together with the deputy and ex-combatant @AldoAdolfoLeivawe present the bill “Historic Reparation of Malvinas”.
A postponed and deserved recognition to our heroes and their families ?? pic.twitter.com/ovnrILXJM9– Victoria Tolosa Paz (@vtolosapaz) September 23, 2022
Tolosa Paz also referred to the spirit that motivated the initiative, “not as an economic issue, although it is when enacting laws, but as a social reparation, because it is a society that wants to repair 10 years of neglect. We are a generation that wants to take charge against a State that turned its back on them“, said.
Along these lines, he highlighted the “change of expectation” that began to take place as of 2004, with the policy carried out by the government of Nestor Kirchnerwhich allowed “to begin to settle the debts with the heroes”.
For his part, Leiva stressed that it is necessaryor “recognizing a generation that was forgotten is an act of strict justice”; while he drew a complete picture of the reality that the heroes went through 40 years ago: “The dictatorship made us feel guilty for the defeat in Malvinas when we were only 19 years old.”
What is the initiative about?
The project promoted by Tolosa Paz y Leiva establishes the benefit of “Malvinas Historical Reparation” for people who “were incorporated as soldiers in the conscription service” and participated in the South Atlantic conflict between April 2 and June 14, 1982in “effective combat actions in the Malvinas Theater of Operations (TOM), in the Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, or actually engaged in combat in the area of the South Atlantic Theater of Operations (TOAS)”.
It is also contemplated benefit civilians who were fulfilling “service or support functions” in these places during the war with Great Britain.
The amount of the repair will be equivalent to the value of “104 minimum pensions of the Argentine Integrated Social Security System (SIPA)”, which will be paid in “24 consecutive and updated installments according to Article 32 of Law 24,241 on retirement mobility”.
FALKLANDS UNITES US ????
• ?| Together with Victoria Tolosa Paz, National Deputy, we presented the “Historic Reparation of the Malvinas” bill in the National Congress. pic.twitter.com/HHDdNQWX99
– Aldo Adolfo Leiva (@AldoAdolfoLeiva) September 23, 2022
The initiative recognizes the physical and psychological consequences that impacted ex-combatants and their families, of such magnitude, that “it is estimated that there were the same number of casualties produced in the war as in the postwar period.”
The text of the project alludes to this lack of public policies, attention and containment on the part of the State, especially in the period immediately after the war and extendable for ten years, known as the “demalvinization process”.
The initiative was consensual and has the support of organizations that bring together ex-soldiers conscripted combatants in Malvinas that make up the Malvinas Coincidences Table (Mecoma), among them, the Center for Ex-Combatants Malvinas Islands of La Plata (Cecim) and the Center for Veterans Ex-Combatants Malvinas Islands of Berisso (Cevecim).
