President Javier Milei led the official ceremony this Saturday for the restitution of General José de San Martín's curved saber to the Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers, in the Santa Fe city of San Lorenzo, the setting of the historic battle of February 3, 1813, where the independence forces defeated the royalist troops.
During his speech, the head of state highlighted the transformative nature of the independence campaign and the Liberator's legacy. “The Sanmartinian campaign was a true revolution. The vision and leadership of our founding fathers freed the colonies from a tyrannical state, a state that was not concerned with the growth and prosperity of the inhabitants of the New World, but only sought to defend its privileges,” Milei stated as he began his address.
In that vein, the President drew a parallel between the emancipation process and the country's current challenges. “The world before the revolution was a stagnant, backward, and unjust world. It was an upside-down world. The revolution broke with the past of oppression and put the United Provinces on their feet for the first time in their history, it straightened what was upside down and allowed us to walk, it allowed us to become in just under a century a nation that would be a power and would surpass in glory the empire from which it broke away,” he maintained.
“This liberating attitude aimed at correcting the world, breaking the chains of oppression, and conquering freedom must guide us today and always in the decisions that we make as a nation. That's why today we also consecrate in this ceremony the return of General San Martín's curved saber to the Regiment of Grenadiers,” he added.
