On November 6, 1820, Argentine Navy Colonel David Jewett raised the Argentine flag for the first time in the Islas Malvinas, in a ceremony that marked a fundamental milestone in the history of national sovereignty over the South Atlantic.

Commanding the frigate Heroína and on behalf of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Jewett formally proclaimed possession of the archipelago, reaffirming the territorial continuity inherited from the Spanish Crown after the May Revolution and the Declaration of Independence.

His arrival on the islands was in response to a strategic decision by the Directory headed by Juan Martín de Pueyrredón, who had entrusted privateers with the defense of the southern territories against foreign incursions.On November 6, in front of his crew and a group of seal hunters operating in the area, Jewett raised the Argentine flag, accompanying the act with a proclamation prohibiting the indiscriminate hunting of marine mammals and with 21 cannon shots symbolizing the reaffirmation of sovereign rights over the territory.

That ceremony constituted a declaration of sovereignty that continues to this day. After several months on the islands, Jewett was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Guillermo Mason, who continued to command until 1833, when British forces invaded the Malvinas and took possession by force, displacing the established Argentine population.

Since then, Argentina has continuously maintained its claim of sovereignty before the United Nations and in all international forums, reaffirming its willingness to reach a peaceful solution to the dispute, in accordance with international law and in memory of those who fell in the 1982 Malvinas War.

Today, 205 years after that first raising, the Argentine flag continues to be a symbol of our country's historic and imprescriptible rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, and the surrounding maritime areas.