An Uncomfortable Memory. The Falklands War in Kirchnerist Governments (2003-2015)

Abstract

In Argentina, the memories of the Falklands War have overlapped and conflicted since the defeat against the English in June 1982. This article seeks to analyze the memory management about the war that Kirchnerist governments appealed to (2003-2015). The political uses of the past of this event involved a challenge since the war was promoted and declared by a dictatorial government and some harshly criticized Armed Forces due to human rights violation. Thus, during Kirchnerist governments, an uncomfortable memory that sought to reconcile the nationalist claim of the Malvinas cause with the defense of human rights and the challenges to the dictatorship. The aim of the paper is to show the way the official memory of the war changed between the government of Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and the one of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015). The documentary corpus in which this analysis lies consists of all presidential speeches mentioning the war and the museum script of the Malvinas Museum, opened by the government in June 2014.