00:00This remote piece of land has been disputed for hundreds of years.
00:05With all its power, Britain has gathered its might.
00:08Call them Falklands or Malvinas, it's an archipelago in the south of the Atlantic Ocean.
00:15They're British territory, but Argentina doesn't think so.
00:19Blue and white of Argentina is on every balcony and in every window.
00:24The dispute led to a war in 1982.
00:27Argentina lost it.
00:36This country hasn't moved on.
00:43People here just don't think this is over.
00:46The last Argentinian who was born will proclaim it.
00:50Malvinas has some characteristics that transform them into the national symbol.
00:54So 40 years on, how has this war changed Argentina?
01:05This year marks the 40th anniversary of the conflict.
01:09So I've come to Buenos Aires to see how people feel.
01:12Since then, this country has been through a lot.
01:16Inflation, poverty and now Covid.
01:21And yet the sovereignty claim for what people call here Las Malvinas is actually quite alive.
01:28In a deeply divided country, getting the islands back is the one thing that really unifies most Argentines.
01:35It's a fundamental part of their identity.
01:38And 40 years after the war, an overwhelming majority of people here still feel that the UK is illegally occupying
01:46their territory.
01:48Paul suggests as many as 80% of the population feel this way.
01:54Just ask anybody.
01:56It's our country.
01:58Argentina is a piece of Argentina.
02:00Why do they have to come from so far to occupy a place that is not of them?
02:03It's something very fundamental, very deep in the heart.
02:06Yes, it hurts a lot.
02:08And the first thing that they do in geography is the map of Argentina with the Malvinas.
02:14It says, Malvinas, Argentina.
02:16I have a friend of a police officer.
02:18My father was in Malvinas and he was in this part of here.
02:21A lot of people hit me.
02:27649 Argentines and 255 British soldiers died during the conflict.
02:35Alejandra's brother, Néstor, was one of them.
02:39The most painful of the death of Néstor was the pain of my old friends.
02:44We lost the older brother.
02:47The joy of my old friends was not the same.
02:51And many memories left us.
02:53We lost them.
02:56We lost them.
02:57We lost them.
02:58We lost them.
02:59We lost them.
02:59Why is the claim of the islands so deep for Argentines?
03:04It's romantic to think that we're going to have them.
03:07That's our essence.
03:08That's an Argentine.
03:10An essence that takes pride in fighting a global power.
03:41Alejandra is not the only one who links the fight for the islands with Diego Maradona.
03:45The legendary football player who was all about beating the powerful as an underdog.
03:51His two goals against England just four years after the war became a symbol of this territorial dispute.
04:01This row dates back centuries.
04:04The UK's claim to the islands goes back to the 1600s when the British Navy first arrived.
04:10Argentina says they inherited them from the Spanish crown in the early 1800s.
04:16Decades of diplomatic talks led nowhere so in April 1982 Argentina made a military move.
04:23The UK fought back, a war broke out and Argentina lost.
04:30But actually, this is even more complicated.
04:35This anniversary puts Argentines in an uncomfortable position because the boldest act to get the islands back
04:41was carried out by a military regime that tortured, killed and disappeared thousands of its own people.
04:52In the 80s, the power of the dictatorship was waning, so they invaded the islands to gain popularity.
05:04And young, unprepared soldiers like them were their pawns.
05:23It wasn't just that they were unprepared.
05:26They didn't even have the right guns.
05:29Rolando Pacholzuc came to the battles with a gun that didn't shoot.
05:34That is, they kept a soldier in front all the time with a gun that didn't shoot.
05:39And unfortunately, he died the last night.
05:42That was the regret that the military dictatorship had for the life of all Argentines.
05:51Nowadays, war veterans like these are seen as national heroes.
05:56But it took decades for them to get recognition for their service.
06:01At least 300 of them committed suicide.
06:04They felt isolated, abandoned.
06:14Alicia was the first woman to be recognized as a war veteran.
06:18It took 38 years.
06:20I was threatened.
06:25I was attacked.
06:26They were thrown.
06:27They threw me off.
06:29They threw me off.
06:29They threw me off.
06:30To say I was a veteran.
06:32The role of the woman was fundamental.
06:35The soldier who arrived from the war came to call his mother.
06:40Mother, mother, where are you, mother?
06:42And he found us.
06:44We were a little mothers.
06:46We were married.
06:47We were married.
06:49We were married.
06:51We were married.
06:52We were married.
06:52We were married.
06:53We were married.
06:54We were married.
06:55We were married.
06:56We were married.
06:58Veterans eventually got what they wanted.
07:01But Argentina hasn't.
07:03The islands are still British territory.
07:06So as the president of Argentina, what he is doing about it?
07:11He wanted to meet in this museum, which commemorates the fallen soldiers of the war.
07:16We are going to insist on the diplomatic way that Argentina will recover the rights of sovereignty on those islands.
07:24The only thing I have to be clear is that the Inglesians are not the Malvinas.
07:29I have to be clear.
07:30It doesn't have any connection.
07:33But it does have a clear connection with Argentina.
07:36That connection is geographical.
07:39The islands, he says, are part of the Argentine territory that lies under the ocean and then resurfaces.
07:47And in spite of this connection, the people who live on the islands feel a strong link with Britain.
07:53They had a referendum about it in 2013.
07:56And 99% voted to maintain the current status.
08:00What are the rights of the Isleans?
08:03To continue living on their lands.
08:05In the world of the right, they are Argentines.
08:08Because they were born on the Argentine territory.
08:11The president sees the islands as a priority.
08:14But this country has other, more urgent problems.
08:18The dispute for the islands is not at the forefront of people's minds here.
08:23Political instability and multiple economic crises seem to be more pressing everyday worries.
08:28And yet, everyone I speak to here feels that the government should keep fighting.
08:34So, I wanted to know what the new generation thinks about this piece of their history.
08:40More than half of Argentina's population hadn't been born during the war.
08:45Why do you believe that this is so deep for the Argentines?
08:50I think it's a lot of emotion at the national level because it's part of the identity of our history.
08:56It's almost like the country exists, there's a constant reclamation.
09:00We've been created like this and I think we all have the pride to continue claiming the sovereignty of our
09:06islands.
09:06A pride that generates passion, but also pain.
09:20But how does one get over that pain?
09:25No, I think it's never going to overcome it.
09:27I think it's been carried out.
09:27It's been carried out.
09:29It's been carried out.
09:29It's been carried out.
09:29It's been carried out.
09:30I can assure you that most Argentines must feel nostalgia, pain, pain, pain.
09:36A lot of pain.
09:38Hello, Mourine.
09:39Alejandra found consolation in an unlikely friendship with an Englishwoman called Maureen.
09:45Her brother was also killed in the conflict.
09:49I write hello, Mourine, and she says hello, sister.
09:54The pride, the celebration of the Madrid goal.
09:57There came to me, you see, like this.
10:02It helped me understand that this was from both sides and that the two parts, in definitiva, lost.
10:09Nobody won the war.
10:11And to remove me a bit of the hatred that I had, not to forgive.
10:15I don't forgive.
10:20The war left many Argentines with anger towards the British.
10:25And 40 years on, people here still feel the fate of the islands is unfinished business.
10:34In the 21st century that we are discussing if colonialism is viable, we should be ashamed.
10:49Argentina says that the UK bombed a ship outside the battlefield.
10:53The UK disputes this.
10:55If you were the president of a country periferous country, like we are the countries of the South,
11:03she would have been judged by crimes of war.
11:05Are you optimistic that someday the islands are going to be recovered?
11:09Yes.
11:11Because I think the reason always wins.
11:14We don't have the strength, we don't have the transatlantic, we don't have the artillery,
11:21we don't have the planes, we don't have the nuclear weapons, but what we have is the reason.
11:26And I'm sure that at some point the reason will predominate.
11:32In many Argentines I found that same internal conflict between being hopeful and being realistic.
12:05This is a country that has not moved on, and it doesn't want to.
12:10Because this is not only about territory, this is about national identity.
12:17Malvinas has some characteristics that turn into the symbol of national.
12:22It's a country that you need to be complete.
12:25Do you think Argentina can't abandon the claim?
12:29I think that Argentina can't abandon the claim.
12:33No can't.
12:36It's an element of its exterior politics.
12:39It's questioning, I would say, in a way remediable or irreversible,
12:44its identity.
12:53The war is a traumatic and very recent memory in the life of most Argentines.
13:00But losing it didn't change people's determination to get the islands back.
13:06If anything, it made it stronger.
13:14It's slightly different.
13:14I would say, I've never done anything about destiny.
13:14But if a person ever had an island with a little bit of a real thing now.
13:14I think it's a good reason.
13:14That's a good reason.
13:14I think it's not only happened.
13:15I know it, but not only happened wrong.
13:23Have a good reason.
13:24I think it was a good reason, it was a good reason.
13:25I think it was a good reason, but never happened to be able to be able to do better.
13:25So, you know, you don't know.
13:31And I think it's a good reason.
13:32And I'm sure you're right.
13:32If you want to get one of your representative and your representative.
13:34I mean, I'm sure you're right.
13:37And I haven't done anything.
13:38And I think it's hard to help.
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