British colonists on the Malvina Islands prevented an image of the Virgin of Luján, which accompanied soldiers during the Malvinas War, from being taken off the plane that landed in Puerto Argentino on Wednesday. It was part of a trip by 140 relatives of those killed in the 1982 conflict to visit the Darwin military cemetery.

Daniel Doronzoro , who took the image during the flight, confirmed to Letra P that the episode occurred this Wednesday just as the Boeing 737-7800, registered LV-HKS, of Andes Líneas Aéreas, touched down on Argentine island soil.

The charter was organized by Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, a company owned by Eduardo Eurnekian, Javier Milei's former boss.

"They didn't give us many explanations, they just said that it was not possible for him to return to the Malvinas. We assume that they believed that the presence of the image was a vindication of Argentine sovereignty," he said.

Doronzoro pointed out that after the war, the image of the Virgin of Luján Malvinera, as it is known, was "retained" for 37 years in the military cathedral of San Miguel and San Jorge, in the English city of Aldershot, and only returned to Argentina in 2019.

Prayer for the fallen in Malvinas

The contingent of relatives of the fallen soldiers was accompanied by the auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires, Pedro Cannavó, who until his episcopal promotion was a military chaplain stationed at the Dámaso Centeno Institute.

At Darwin Military Cemetery, Cannavó led a prayer and blessed the graves that commemorate those who fell in the war.

"We ask the Virgin for our country, for our people; we ask her for reconciliation, for peace, for encounter, for fraternity," he said in the religious invocation.

"It could not be this time, but it will be in the future ," said the bishop of Buenos Aires in relation to the frustrated return of the Marian image to Malvinas.

The path of the image

The image of the Virgin of Luján was donated by a family to the Air Force after the Argentine landing in the Malvinas. On April 9, 1982, it was taken to the islands by the aeronautical chaplain Roque Puyelli and was placed on the improvised altars where field masses were celebrated during the conflict.

It was not until 2018 that Doronzoro located the Marian image in the British military temple and, through the efforts of the Military Bishopric, it was possible to return it.

"In October 2019, we had the joy of being able to carry out, in a meeting with Pope Francis and the military bishop of the United Kingdom, Monsignor Paul Mason, the long-awaited delivery of the Virgin of Luján that was in the Malvinas Islands," recalled the military bishop Santiago Olivera a week ago when announcing that, 42 years later, the image would make a pilgrimage to Malvinas.

As a gesture for the return of the image, Olivera gave a replica to the British military bishop, so that it can - he said - "continue to be venerated in the British military cathedral."

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