Letter from Argentina
Battered but unbowed
Buenos Aires
Ater the euphoria of a hard-fought, emotion-packed war, the agony of defeat was hard to hide. Some gathered in front of Government House and shouted for guns in order to fight on. An 18-year- old listened to his transistor and unsuc- cessfully tried to hide his tears. An elegantly tailored old gentleman sat in the wood- panelled Richmond Tea House, on Calle Florida, and stared impassively out of the window. His newspaper remained folded and unread next to his yellow leather gloves on the chair beside him. Florida Street is the equivalent of the Burlington Arcade, and the women who shop there are the chic, sophisticated kind. The day of the cease- fire there was no great hustle and bustle. A quiescent sadness had set in, like the mists that shroud the city during these late autumn days. The beautiful Egyptian-born wife of a leading Argentine businessman said to me that she was saddened and reliev- ed, as well as proud. 'The killing is at least over. And who would have thought that we could have lasted as long as we did against such odds?' More ominously, a military spokesman said: 'Someone will have to pay a price for all this.'
Who will pay, and what the price will be, it is much too early to tell. As I write this, there is no word about casualties. War must mobilise not only a country's resources and manpower, but the support of its people. Argentina had definitely managed the lat- ter. Their air force, which carried the brunt of this war and has shown that its pilots can fight with the best, is talking about the next battle. 'This was a battle, not the battle,' was the way Brigadier General Basilio Lami Dozo put it.
Some politicians are urging that people follow the armed forces at this crucial mo- ment. Others, perhaps wiser, or more op- portunistic, are asking for the Junta to step down and let them carry on. Whether anyone steps down or not will be decided, however, by the officers of the three forces and not by the politicians, nor by the peo- ple. The latter, unlike some who claim to speak for them, want peace but also digni- ty. As long as the British are on the Falklands there will be no just peace, as far as they're concerned.
Given the fact that nobody really knows the extent of the casualties, it will only be when the prisoners and beaten garrison return that public opinion will start playing a bigger role as to what should be done next. For the moment the people are look- ing to the next round. That is one thing Mrs Thatcher should have no doubts about. Peace can only be had or achieved when justice is tempered with charity. She has got They insist that we accept a gay couple.' her justice. She should now be thinking about the latter. Because one thing is for sure. Without charity, there will be no peace here. It is difficult to exaggerate how emotionally involved almost all Argentines are over the Falklands issue.
In times of trial man has always sought some source of spiritual strength to help him through the rough patches, and the Pope's trip here last week seemed to pro- vide a source of hope to this battered na- tion. For 32 hours people forgot about their dead, their wounded, the economy and the bleak future. God is not dead in Argentina, and it is because He's not that the people are able to cope with the calamities that seem to be constantly afflicting them. In my lifetime I had not seen such an outpouring of love and faith. Surprisingly, I even saw some of the richest and most prominent people of Argentine society lining up with the humblest in order to catch a glimpse of the Holy Father. Very few of the landed gentry left the city for their estancias last weekend. God, it seems, is not dead even among the rich. In Argentina, at least.
The landed gentry here have always been among the hard-core regular churchgoers, and their devotion has been matched by their largesse. They have given large tracts of land to the Church, and even the ornate 19th-century palace where the Pope stayed, on Avenue Alvear, was willed to the Vatican by a devout multi-millionaire. Members of the Vatican press corps said that they had never before seen such an out- pouring of national sentiment in the 13 foreign journeys the Pope has made. While the Archbishop of Santa Fe, Vicente Faustino Zazpe, accused the United States of treason, and Britain of hysteria, the Pope preached peace, love and justice. In a country filled with gloom over the impen- ding fall of Port Stanley, it was the right message. I believe that if it wasn't for the visit, there would be trouble at this very moment in the streets.
While the Pope had stressed repeatedly, and even upon his arrival at Ezeiza Airport, that his was a spiritual and not a political mission, the mothers of allegedly missing people tried to force a confrontation. It didn't work. I saw tens of people shouting to them, 'Your sons were not men. They were murderers. They were Cubans. How dare you insult our boys fighting in Las Malvinas by mentioning murderers in the
same breath.' I have been staying with Francisco Soldati, whose brother was kid-
napped, and father cold-bloodedly murdered for no apparent reason except for believing and investing in Argentina. One day the matter of the desparecados will have to be resolved.
Meanwhile, I have been walking around Buenos Aires with a great bandage on my hand. 'No, I haven't been to Las Malvinas,' I am obliged to answer to the constant ques- tion. I simply tried to break a brick for the Soldati children in order to show off my karate prowess, but broke my knuckle in- stead.
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