Argentines Welcome 'Odious' Thatcher's Death

Argentines have condemned Margaret Thatcher as a warmonger after learning of the former prime minister's death.

Mrs Thatcher ordered British troops to the Falkland Islands in 1982 after Argentine soldiers seized control.

Many Argentines blame her for the deaths of the 649 troops who died during the 74-day conflict on the islands, known as Las Malvinas in Argentina.

Miguel Lopez, from Buenos Aires, said he felt "much injustice, much anger and also a little hate, for the loss of so many Argentine lads and for that, I feel this anger still today".

Domenico Gruscomagno, aged 71, said: "God bless the day that that terrible woman has died. She was an odious person. In order to win elections in Great Britain, she waged war."

Mario Volpe, the head of the Malvinas War Veterans Centre, lamented that Baroness Thatcher "died without being punished, without having been put on trial" over the conflict.

"Let's say that she will not be remembered as someone who contributed anything to peace," he said.

"I always think of her decision to sink the cruise ship (General Belgrano), because when presented with the opportunity to stop the war, she never did. She stepped it up."

The battleship Belgrano was sunk with the loss of 323 Argentine sailors as the Organisation of American States tabled a peace plan aimed at ending the war.

Mr Volpe, who suffered a punctured lung and a shoulder injury in the Falklands, said the decision to sink the Belgrano put Baroness Thatcher "on the same level" as Argentine military dictator Leopoldo Galtieri who ordered the invasion.

Argentina's government has offered no formal reaction to the death.

On the islands themselves, flags were flown at half-mast and the weekly Penguin News carried the headline: "Lady Thatcher's death received with great sadness in Falkland Islands".

The cluster of islands 8,000 miles from UK was home to 1,800 people when Argentina attempted to take control after 150 years of British rule.

Shopkeeper Sybie Summers said: "If wasn't for her, we probably, I probably wouldn't be here today."

Local historian John Smith remembered with fondness a visit that Mrs Thatcher made to the Islands in 1983, a year after the war.

"Wherever she stopped or saw people she got in among them and she was unstoppable and after four days she left as secretly as she arrived," he said.

Argentina is still calling for talks with Britain on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands despite the islanders' overwhelming vote in March to remain British.