By Marcos Brindicci

Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla died on May 17 at the age of 87 inside his cell in a prison near Buenos Aires, where he was serving a life sentence for crimes against humanity. He was the first President and most emblematic figure of the military junta that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, during the so-called “Dirty War” years. Human rights organizations claim that around 30,000 people disappeared during those years, and Videla never repented about the kidnappings and murders ordered by the state.

His death of old age got me thinking about one of my first memories of him, and also, one of my last ones.

When I was about five years old my mother took me to Iguazu Falls for a winter vacation and we ended up staying at the same hotel where Videla, as president, was staying. I was running all around the hotel and, at one point, I was stopped by members of his guard and led back downstairs. My mother later told me what was going on and that Videla was the guy I had seen on TV. It is a candid memory of someone I learned to loathe for what he had done and what he represented, as most Argentines do.

That former army commander was sentenced to life in prison in 1985 for human rights abuses under his rule, but was pardoned in 1990 by then-President Carlos Menem. Some years later, when I became a photojournalist and more Dirty War cases were opened in Argentina, I got a few chances to take pictures of him, usually through the window of a car as he arrived at a courthouse or from a distance as he was led out of it.

But one time, in 2010, when I was in Cordoba covering the Volleyball World League finals, I was also assigned to cover a hearing there of one of his trials inside the courthouse. The ideal situation for a photographer is not to be noticed at all but, even when I know this is not very ethical, this time I admit that I wanted him to see me. It is well known that he and most of the so-called “repressors” on trial don’t like being photographed in that situation.

I had my 400mm lens for the volleyball matches and decided to take it to the court, even though I expected to be as close as a few feet from him. It was nothing compared to what my colleagues had the opportunity to shoot during the dictatorship – society’s repudiation of him and his fate in the hands of Justice. But just noticing that he was bothered by my presence and my weapon (my camera and massive 400mm lens), and getting the close-up shots I wanted, felt like a small victory in front of a man who made life and death decisions over an entire country.

Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

Czech journalist Jeri Hasek appeared in the hotel lobby saying to some of us Argentines, “You have a Pope! An Argentine Pope!”

The truth is, here in the Falkland Islands some swearing was heard after the news. I have to admit that, no matter what your opinion on the church and religious matters are, it is kind of exciting to learn that someone from your country gets to be Pope. But as an Argentine, I know this will boost our ego, and that can’t be good.

I left the hotel to find my co-workers from Reuters TV to tell them the news and I ran into Patrick Watts, a Falkland Islands journalist. Patrick told me, “Well, you can’t have the Falklands, but at least you got yourselves a Pope.”

Two Chilean journalists drove around town to break the news to us. One of them said, “God, if you Argentines thought you were the best before, now you’re going to be unbearable.” A British journalist just said, “Sorry, bad luck for you, guys.”

Of course, I couldn’t help but think about how the story was going to be covered in Buenos Aires and that my colleague there was going to have to work hard to find things related to Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. Many Argentine journalists in the Falklands to cover the referendum started saying that this would probably make our job in Buenos Aires more difficult. I know that we Argentines usually complain about just about anything, but I believe this brings us a new story to cover in Argentina, and that’s exciting.

So, what can I do about the news of the first Argentine and South American Pope when you’re on an island where the next flight to Argentina is not for three days and Port Stanley’s religious population is mainly Anglican? We decided to visit St. Mary’s, the only Catholic church in town.

After a wait, Monsignor Michael McPartland came to us. When asked about the number of churchgoers his answer was, “How many fingers do you have on one hand? Well, that, minus one.”

So, not much of a religious reaction here in the Falklands. But he invited us to his home to watch the broadcast from the Vatican with the new Pope, and he told us that he would love it if Francis came to the Islands after a visit to Argentina.

I was not really expecting any reaction to the new Pope from the Falkland Islands. Nevertheless, everybody’s talking about it. Even on the radio, they have already started discussing the impact of the new Pope on the Islands’ conflict with Argentina.

Of course, dinner was the time for joking at our table. Someone asked Brazilian journalist Silvia Colombo, “Do you Brazilians have a Pope? Because we do.” Her reply was brilliant; She showed her open right hand, her five fingers symbolizing the number of soccer world cups that Brazil has won.

In the end, it all comes down to soccer. Today a popular Argentine newspaper asked the question, “Will Pope Francis break the curse and see his national soccer team win the World Cup?”

By Marcos Brindicci

YES.

That’s the word in the Falkland Islands these days.

Islanders held a referendum to stay under British rule and almost unanimously (98.8 percent) voted YES, with 92 percent of voter attendance. YES was also the first picture I took upon arriving in Port Stanley, the word formed with vehicles up on a hillside.

I first came to the Islands exactly one year ago, but the feeling now is different. It feels like the word YES is also in the spirit of its residents, as they seem much more positive towards foreigners and Argentines in general; I get the sense that they separate Argentine people from the Argentine government’s position.

A year ago, it was difficult for me just to talk to some of the islanders. Many Argentine war veterans were coming to visit the islands and they were not at ease about it. But now, they’re receiving journalists from all over, and the attention that they wanted to get, which is the main goal of the referendum. I knew that it was going to be different this time but I was not expecting to witness such a show of their patriotism.

Residents arrived at the polling stations wearing suits, wigs and dresses with the Union Jack colors, and T-shirts embossed with words that spoke their minds. And they were happy to show them and pose for the media.

I did not expect at all that people were going to line up outside the polling station in this kind of weather, changing from rain to sunshine to snowfall and sunshine again, and then rain again, all within an hour.

I ran into a woman who I photographed last year, as she was waiting to vote. She was really happy to meet me again and gave me a big hug. I immediately remembered that, when she approached me at the supermarket a year ago, she asked me if we Argentines were going to invade the Falklands again.

It was all red, blue and white everywhere: Land Rovers all around decorated with the Union Jack and Falkland flags. They even had a parade with cars driving around before the referendum and another one, called the “victory parade,” the day after.

As soon as the ballot results were known, people exploded in emotion. They gathered outside the Anglican Cathedral and waited there for the final tally. I guess the beer helped them resist the cold, because they had started drinking earlier; This is a place where drinking seems to be a local sport, and now they really had a reason to play.

Unlike last year, when we were advised not to photograph children, this time they didn’t seem to have any problem.

But the emotional week ended and a couple of days after the referendum, everything began to return to what I had remembered from the first visit. Though people still seem friendly, the feeling is that during the “referendum days” their excitement and the fact that they could all be united gave them the confidence to act more openly towards foreigners.

As an Argentine, coming to the Falklands (or “Malvinas,” as we call them) for the first time had an emotional feeling to it, bringing back memories of the war and everything I learned since I was a little boy. Coming a second time still makes it a special trip, but I get the feeling that I can put aside all the things I had thought of the Islands before and really get a better idea of what living here is like and how the Islanders are.

As we wait for the weekly return flight, many colleagues are bored and eager to leave right away, but not me. It’s always nice to spend a week in what feels like the end of the world.

The official count showed 99.8 percent of islanders voted in favor of remaining a British Overseas Territory in the two-day referendum, which was rejected by Argentina as a meaningless publicity stunt. Only three “no” votes were cast.

“Surely this must be the strongest message we can get out to the world,” said Roger Edwards, one of the Falklands assembly’s eight elected members.

“(The message) that we are content, that we wish to retain the status quo … with the right to determine our own future and not become a colony of Argentina.”

Pro-British feeling is running high in the barren and blustery islands that lie off the tip of Patagonia, and turnout was 92 percent among the 1,649 Falklands-born and long-term residents registered to vote.

Three decades since Argentina and Britain went to war over the far-flung South Atlantic archipelago, residents have been perturbed by Argentina’s increasingly vocal claim over the Malvinas – as the islands are called in Spanish.

Local politicians hope the resounding “yes” vote will help them lobby support abroad, for example in the United States, which has a neutral position on the sovereignty issue.

“We’re never going to change Argentina’s claim and point of view, but I believe there are an awful lot of countries out there that are sitting on the fence … this is going to show them quite clearly what the people think,” Edwards added.

The mood was festive as islanders lined up in the cold to vote in the low-key island capital of Stanley during voting, some wearing novelty outfits made from the red, white and blue Union Jack flag.

“We are British and that’s the way we want to stay,” said Barry Nielsen, who wore a Union Jack hat to cast his ballot at the town hall polling station in Stanley, where most of the roughly 2,500 islanders live.

PRESSURE ON BRITAIN

Argentina’s fiery left-leaning president, Cristina Fernandez, has piled pressure on Britain to negotiate the sovereignty of the islands, something London refuses to do unless the islanders request talks.

Most Latin American countries and many other developing nations have voiced support for Argentina, which has stepped up its demands since London-listed companies started drilling for oil and natural gas off the Falklands craggy coastline.

Government officials in Buenos Aires questioned the referendum’s legitimacy. They say the sovereignty dispute must be resolved between Britain and Argentina and cite U.N. resolutions calling on London to sit down for talks.

“This (referendum) is a ploy that has no legal value,” said Alicia Castro, Argentina’s ambassador to London.

“Negotiations are in the islanders’ best interest. We don’t want to deny them their identity. They’re British, we respect their identity and their way of life and that they want to continue to be British. But the territory they occupy is not British,” she told an Argentine radio station.

Argentina has claimed the islands since 1833, saying it inherited them from the Spanish on independence and that Britain expelled an Argentine population.

The war, which killed about 650 Argentines and 255 Britons and ended when Argentina surrendered, is widely remembered in Argentina as a humiliating mistake by the discredited and brutal dictatorship in power at the time.

But most Argentines think the islands rightfully belong to the South American country and they remain a potent national symbol that unites political foes.

Falkland islanders, who are enjoying an economic boom thanks partly to the sale of oil and natural gas exploration licenses, say they do not expect Monday’s result to sway Argentina.

“Argentina’s stance on the Falklands will stay the same,” said Stanley resident Craig Paice, wearing a t-shirt with the slogan “Our Islands, Our Decision” as he waited to vote on Monday.

“But hopefully the world will now listen and know the people of the Falkland Islands have a voice.”

(Additional reporting by Magali Cervantes in Stanley and Helen Popper in Buenos Aires; Writing by Helen Popper; Editing by Paul Simao)

It was another one of those calls asking me, “Could you go to…”, one of the situations that photographers long for.

A new presidential crisis in Paraguay seemed ready to become a violent one because all the elements were there; armed clashes between landless peasant farmers and police had ended with 17 people killed (11 farmers and 6 policemen), the interior minister had resigned, and Congress was voting to impeach President Fernando Lugo. I cancelled my trip to northern Argentina for a rugby test match and booked the first flight to Asuncion, the next morning. As I arrived, I headed straight for Congress, where demonstrations were already underway as the impeachment trial began.

The impeachment trial happened lightning fast, as Congress gave Lugo only a couple of hours to prepare his defense. The Senate voted 39-4 to remove him the day after lawmakers in the Lower House agreed in a sudden, near-unanimous vote to impeach him. I had my tear gas mask with me, and Reuters’ veteran Paraguay photographer Jorge Adorno and stringer Mario Valdez were ready, but nothing really happened. At one point, as I was waiting at the Presidential Palace for Lugo to appear, we got word of clashes developing in front of the Congress, but it was just a small incident that was short-lived.

After taking Lugo’s picture at the Palace and filing it to the wire I went back to Congress to find it calm, in spite of the number of riot policemen and demonstrators.

Nobody thought it would stay that way for long. We had all expected hours or days of clashes. That was the norm in Paraguay’s unstable political past.

But I stayed in Asuncion for a week and we ended up covering just Lugo’s activity and whatever was going on at the presidential palace. We did get exclusive interviews with both Lugo and his successor, Federico Franco, before any other news agency. There were demonstrations against Lugo’s impeachment, but nothing major.

Asuncion is an interesting place, and the way people reacted to the whole situation struck me as somehow bizarre, since I am used to seeing protests, pickets and clashes in Buenos Aires for just about anything. The day after new President Franco was sworn in, he attended a mass held outside Asuncion’s cathedral, at a public park. There were not many police around and we could take pictures very easily from different places.

Rumors circulated that there might be a demonstration against Franco because a few leftist militants were spotted. The demonstration did happen, but not until the polemical president left. There were only about six people holding signs and shouting slogans in the middle of a crowd of Franco’s supporters and churchgoers. Nobody really seemed to care. A policeman wrote down their names with a pen he borrowed from… one of the demonstrators! He did return it afterward.

All this was happening in what is not exactly the most peaceful place on Earth. In the 23 years since the last dictator was deposed, Paraguay has seen it’s share of coups, impeachment trials accompanied by deadly riots, and even the assassination of a vice-president, Luis Maria Argaña, in 1999.

In spite of this being the quietest presidential ousting in recent history, there were quite a few interesting or humorous situations.

In our interview, President Franco was asked what he thought about Argentina’s decision to withdraw its ambassador from Paraguay in response to the impeachment trial. He looked surprised and said he hadn’t heard of that decision, and that now, a day after Lugo had been ousted, he would have to call Lugo and ask him for help managing relations with neighboring countries.

An hour before the swearing-in ceremony for Franco’s new Cabinet, I asked someone from the presidential press office why there was no economy minister on the list we were handed. His reply was that they were still in talks with the candidates, but that none of them had arrived yet.

“Whoever shows up first gets the job,” he said.

I was almost eight years old when the Falklands War started, and the first thing I remember about those days is seeing national flags flying from houses in my hometown in Buenos Aires province. It reminded me of the celebrations during the 1978 World Cup. Though only a child, I knew the government was not very popular in those years, so I was surprised and confused by the euphoria we felt when our troops landed in Port Stanley, the beginning of a war fought by many untrained conscripts.

As an Argentine I’ve been intrigued by the Falkland Islands since our military government decided to fight over them in 1982. I’d missed two opportunities in the past to travel there for Reuters and I was thrilled with the chance to finally go.

As I prepared the trip I began thinking about what the place symbolized, especially considering the renewed diplomatic tension with Britain and the upcoming 30th anniversary of the war. At the same time I kept thinking about the islanders because although we focus on the fight for possession, we rarely think about the islanders themselves. Even now, in the minds of many Argentines, they’re not part of the discussion.

To reach the Falklands from Argentina I had to go to Rio Gallegos in Patagonia and board a twice-weekly flight that begins in Chile and ends at the international airport in Mount Pleasant. I photographed a group of Argentine war veterans boarding the same plane, and that gave me an early start to the story. I wanted to get past the war aspect and focus on something else that was in my mind – that I was going to a place in which people actually live and call their home.

Going there as an Argentine citizen at a time of renewed diplomatic friction made the islanders’ patriotism and dissatisfaction with visitors from my country ever more obvious. I had hoped to blend in enough to be able to do a series of portraits of islanders. The sight of Union Jacks and the Falkland flag all over cars, shops and houses, made it all the more difficult.

Port Stanley is a city where you don’t see people walking around much, even less on the weekends, so I decided to begin by following the veterans to the cemeteries, war memorials and battlefields. Then I would start covering local issues as I got a better feel of the place. Argentine veterans had been advised of the displeasure that their presence would cause. I even thought it could be a problem if I took and filed a photo of them displaying their national flag at the cemetery in Darwin. They were going to do it not to make a show but because it means a lot to them.

I walked with them through the former Darwin battlefields, and then along Wireless Ridge and Apple Pie. I accompanied them to San Carlos Beach, where the British Army landed to retake the Islands. At San Carlos cemetery they even paid their respects to the British soldiers who died fighting them.

With that part of the story done I could start focusing on the rest – the islanders and their lives. I planned to shoot a series of portraits of people in front of their homes, and began with Judy White, who approached me at the supermarket when she saw me taking pictures. She asked me suspiciously, “Who are you,” and then the almost mandatory question, “Are you from Argentina?” Then she surprised me with another. “What are you people going to do with us, invade us again?” I answered that there was no way that could happen. After she accepted to be photographed as part of my project, we went to her home and it was there that I began to realize how the war had affected the islanders. She said she’d had a recent nightmare in which somebody knocked on her door and when she opened it there was an Argentine soldier outside. This dream came 30 years after the conflict.

There were quite a few “nos”, some of them very polite, from islanders refusing to be photographed. But I did manage to find some interesting people to take portraits of, and not only people born and raised in the Falklands. Among them was Alex Olmedo, a Chilean chef that immigrated to the Islands 21 years ago and now manages a hotel.

Argentine Nancy Mansilla, married to islander Joseph Reid who was born there a year before the war, moved to Argentina right after the conflict, and then returned with his family to Port Stanley just a few years ago.

Phil Middleton, a teacher from England who arrived 35 years ago.

Willy Bowles, a school traffic agent who I dubbed the lollipop man.

Trudi Felton, a policewoman who told me she had a couple of friends who were Argentine veterans.

Derek Howatt, who had been Falklands Financial Secretary for many years and now keeps busy growing his own vegetables at home.

Coleen Biggs, the librarian of Stanley who has a Union Jack painted on the roof of her house because as her mother put it, “It’s our only flag.”

I found almost nothing in common with Argentina. All I can think of is an “empanada” (Latin American style of meat pastry) that I had for lunch at a sheep auction in Saladero, west of Port Stanley.

Many, or most, Argentines will not agree with me, but I think there is a profound matter that needs to be addressed. The place I visited has no aspect that resembles Argentina, or at least not at this moment. I left the Falklands with that feeling, since I define a nation as a group of people that have something in common and live together rather than as an occupied territory. That’s just my opinion after the visit, and I accept all arguments as valid, of course.

I also left with the feeling that I didn’t get the photo that shows what it is really like down there, although I realize now that perhaps a single picture of a house could tell the story.
By the way, there’s been no sign of Prince William, but everyone knows he’s there, somewhere.

(View a slideshow of images from the Argentine side of the Falklands war here)