"All we have done is interpret the sentiment of the Argentine people": about Galtieri & the Falklands

DAGATTI, MARIANO

African Yearbook of Rhetoric

AfricaRhetoric Publishing

Lugar: Ciudad del Cabo; Año: 2015 vol. 6 p. 60 - 62

The speech by de facto president Leopoldo F. Galtieri, declaring the Falklands War on 2 April 1982, precipitated the end of the military rule that had begun in 1976, as Argentina?s defeat had led to the discrediting of the armed forces and irreversibly accelerated the democratisation process that had been announced with the Multiparty, a union of the political parties in 1981 that aimed to put pressure on the military to leave power. Raul Alfonsin, who would be elected democratically in 1983, was one of the few politicians who dared to publicly oppose a war that, as evidenced by the joy aroused by Galtieri?s speech, had the support of much of the population. The dictator, however, as an indication of the difficulty in building a political bond with his audience, does not address it, he does not name it as such, by omitting the initial vocative that is the (re)creator of identity ? unlike Peron, who names it ?Workers?, and Alfonsin who names it ?Compatriots?.