In April of 1982, troops of the Argentine Army lowered the British flag from the house of the Malvinas Islands Governor,
Sir Rex Hunt, and that day, Port Stanley became Puerto Argentino; but the English troops recovered the archipelago on June 14 of that year. That day, the Generals Jeremy Moore, Major of the British Forces, and Mario Benjamin Menéndez, Miilitary Governor, agreed the cease-fire and the surrender of the Argentine troops. However, neither the English Task Force, nor the Foreign Office could recover the native emblem of the Islands; the British flag with the symbol of the sheep in the center, which had been got down from the flagpole of the
government 73 days before. But the Argentine Government does not have the flag. So: Where is the flag? After 23 years, our journalistic investigation took us to determine that one crazy
journalist out of those who was covering the armed conflict in-place, is the possessor of the flag, and he accepted to be interviewed by us. Very close to the most emblematic corner of the tango, San Juan and Boedo, in Buenos Aires, we found the house of Carlos García Malod, 63 years old, who is journalistic producer of the news channel "Cronica TV", and until five years ago, he worked for the National News Agency Télam, media for which he covered the war. "I have the flag, but now I took it out of my house and it is kept in a safe place which does not spark off suspicions", García Malod tell us, "so the SAS, the MI5 and the MI6 should abstain", he stood out and he gives us the pictures of the mythical flag taken in the backyard of his house that is felt as a real " War Trophy." About the way in which he took possession of the flag he assures: "We had radio transmission equipments, and we allowed that some acquaintances come to speak to the continent with their families. One of them, who used to communicate with his girlfriend was the governor Menéndez’ assistant, a Lieutenant called Guillermo Amuchástegui. Until I told him ''This is not for free'' ". "He asked me what I wanted to let him go on talking, and I requested him the flag. At the beginning he refused to accept my request. ''I want the official flag of the government of The Falkland Island, where the Captain of Corvette Pedro Edgardo Giacchino died''. I told him that if he didn''t bring me the flag, he wouldn’t be able to go on speaking. And he told me that he could not steal it, but he could tell me where it was", he stressed. "One day Menéndez invites us to the government. It was on June 7, date in which it is celebrated in Argentina the Journalist''s Day, one week before the surrender. I asked for permission to go to the bathroom, and with the map that Amuchastegui made for me, I arrived to a larder in the kitchen of the government house where hey had hidden the English flag. I camouflaged it underneath my clothes, and I also stole a salami for me", he admits. "In the first shipment to Buenos Aires we took it out. It arrived "evacuated". There was somebody, I cannot make public his name, it was a captain of Army, wounded in fight who brought it to me hidden among his belongings, and when he arrived in Buenos Aires, he called my then wife, and gave it to her, along with some “photos roll", he admitted. When asked if somebody wanted to buy it, the journalist expressed: "Some people found out that I have this flag. Caesar Cao Saravia, a nationalist manager from Salta province offered me money. Also a union leader, Armando Cavallieri, offered me for it about 25 thousand dollars. But I didn''t want to sell it. If some day Argentina has a serious government again, I will donate it to some museum so that it is exposed and well kept." About his experience when covering the armed conflict, García Malod admitted: "The last days we felt a lot of fear, because a war that we had lost was finishing. We had committed too much, beyond our condition of journalists. The issue is sensitive." "Later on, the law recognized us as "civil comeceived the "Medal to the Merit" of the Congress of the Nation, some years later, and as " Civil Veteran" we received a pension from the government. It was recognized in that category to civil employees of the companies that acted in the operations theater, and to those of the Merchant Marina", he said. Also he was asked about any experience close to the death, he admitted two: "In the backyard of our house a bomb of 500 pounds fell and did not explode. It buried itself in the backyard where there was a small vegetable garden. That bomb didn''t fall there just by chance." "Another dangerous moment was in Bahia Elefante. We were flying in helicopter, it run out of JP1 - fuel - and we had to wait there for the whole night, with an unbearable cold weather, waiting that they provide us with fuel. In a book called "The Two Sides of the Coin" (Las Dos Caras de la Moneda) that the Englishmen write, they say that a group of special forces had us at gun shot in that night, but they didn''t want to shoot us because they had a main target and they didn''t want to reveal their position. Once we left, in the following dawn, they dynamited 14 Argentine airplanes that were placed in that base", he pointed out. García Malod arrived in the Islands on April 13 of 1982; eleven days after the Argentine troops lowered the British pavilion in question. He covered the warlike conflict for the News Agency Télam - that belongs to the Argentine State -. At the end of April another journalist arrived in the place, Diego Pérez Andrade, to reinforce the press covering. Next to them it was the technical Carlos González, and the photographers Román Von Ekstein, Eduardo Navone, and Eduardo Farré. There was also a team of the state channel news ATC (Argentina Televisora Color) made up by the journalist Nicolás Kazanzew, the cameraman Lamela, and the camera assistant Marcos Novo. "We all belonged to media controlled by the Argentine State, although there was a cameraman, Eduardo Rotondo that said to belong to a strange agency", he upheld. About the treatment that they had with the villagers, he commented: "The kelpers harassed us, they threw their cars against us. They didn''t like what we were doing, they felt it like a provocation. And when they found out that we stole the flag, they became crazy." About the evacuation of the Islands, he said: "Immediately after the Pope left Argentina, the surrender took place in Malvinas. In the area of the pier nor military were permitted. Due to the Convention of Geneva only the civilians could carry the wounded, which were 420. We went to a ferry, the Yehuin that used to go where the Icebreaker Almirante Irizar was anchored. After three days of sailing, on June 18, we arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia, and we ended up our odyssey", he concluded. "On Saturday 19 at night, we could get a flight to Buenos Aires, and on Sunday, June 20th , which was "The Father Day", I was able to meet my father again, also a journalist, who was still working in his profession, and wait for the war to end to retire. That day in Argentina is celebrated the Flag''s Day, and I found my self at home with this kind of "War Trophy", the British Flag", he ended up.