Battle of Goose Green - Argentine Military Trials of 2009

Argentine Military Trials of 2009

Argentine army officers and NCOs were later charged with abusing and killing their own troops at Goose Green. Our own officers were our greatest enemies, says Ernesto Alonso, the president of CECIM, a veterans group founded by Rodolfo Carrizo and other conscripts of the 7th Regiment. They supplied themselves with whiskey from the pubs, but they weren't prepared for war. "They disappeared when things got serious. There are others who maintain that the conscripts were helped to make themselves as comfortable as possible under the circumstances and that their officers and NCOs fought well and tried hard to bolster morale.

In 2009, Argentine authorities in Comodoro Rivadavia ratified a decision made by authorities in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego (which, according to Argentina, have authority over the islands) charging 70 officers and NCOs with inhumane treatment of conscript soldiers during the war. We have testimony from 23 people about a soldier who was shot to death by a corporal, four other former combatants who starved to death, and at least 15 cases of conscripts who were staked out on the ground, Pablo Vassel, under-secretary of human rights in the province of Corrientes, told Inter Press Service News Agency.

On 19 May a 12th Regiment conscript, Secundino Riquelme, reportedly died of starvation. There are claims, however, that false testimonies were used as evidence in accusing the Argentine officers and NCOs of abandonment and Vassel had to step down from his post as under-secretary of human rights of Corrientes in 2010. Other veterans are sceptical about the veracity of the accusations with Colonel Martiniano Duarte saying that it has become fashionable for ex-conscripts to now accuse their superiors of abandonment.

Former conscript Fernando Cangiano has also dismissed the claims about the supposed widespread sadism present among the Argentine officers and NCOs and the claim that the conscripts had not handled themselves well in the fighting. Former conscript César Trejo also accused the current Argentine Ministry of Defense, Nilda Garré of promoting a state of confused politics in favour of the CECIM.

Sub-Lieutenant Gustavo Malacalza is accused of handing out field punishment in his platoon in the form of having staked three conscripts at Goose Green, for having abandoned their positions to go looking for food and revealing their positions with gunfire. "We said it was going to be us next," said Private Mario Oscar Nuñez recalling the death of conscript Riquelme. Soon after the British landings, he and two other conscripts took the decision to kill a sheep. The three men were skinning the sheep when they were discovered by Sub-Lieutenant Malacalza, who was accompanied by fellow conscripts of A Company, 12th Regiment and given a beating. They started kicking and stamping on us. Finally came the staking.