Argentina's Falklands Hero Was a Disgruntled Ranch Hand Who Killed Five Men
He killed his boss and a shopkeeper over devalued pay scrip, and a legal technicality in London turned him into a legend.
Wendover Productions · Why Britain Cares So Much About the FalklandsMonths after British forces reasserted control of the Falkland Islands in 1833, Antonio Rivero, an Argentine cattle hand, gathered a group of fellow workers and rose up.
They killed five men, seized the settlement's main building, tore down the British flag, and ran up a makeshift Argentine one in its place. Months later, British authorities arrested Rivero and put him on a ship to England to face justice.
In Argentina, that uprising became a founding legend of the dispute over the islands, which Argentines call the Malvinas. Rivero, a gaucho, or South American cowboy, is pictured on the country's 50-peso note alongside drawings of the islands. The note also carries a line from the March of the Malvinas, the anthem of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego province: "No land is more wanted than the fatherland as a whole." Generations of schoolchildren learned Rivero as the patriot who rebelled against foreign occupiers.
Most historians, including Argentine ones, now say that account is largely myth rather than fact. Rivero and his men were not fighting for a flag. They were mad at their boss.
Rivero had come to the islands with Louis Verete, a German-born businessman who lived in Argentina and had secured permission from officials in both countries to round up feral cattle there. Argentina had named Verete governor, in part to show a government presence. Matthew Brisbane stayed on as the venture's agent after Verete left, and the cattle business kept operating after British forces reasserted control in 1833.
For the cattle hands who stayed, conditions soured. Their new boss paid them in devalued promissory notes, or paper IOUs, that the local store no longer accepted. They were barred from sailing home to Buenos Aires, and their workload grew unreasonable.
So they murdered their boss Brisbane, along with the shopkeeper who would not take their notes and three other men. When Rivero was brought to London, English courts did set him free, but not because judges doubted Britain's claim, as Argentine legend later held. Under the British system, colonies were tried by their own local courts, and the Falklands did not yet have one, less than a year after Britain had retaken the islands. With no court that had jurisdiction, there could be no trial.
Rivero was deported to Brazil a free man, and his portrait now appears on the 50-peso note as a national hero.
Questions people ask
What is a gaucho?
A gaucho is a skilled horseman and cattle herder of the South American grasslands, similar to a North American cowboy. In the 1800s, Argentine and Uruguayan gauchos were hired for their ability to manage wild cattle, which is why they were brought to the Falklands to harvest feral herds.
Why do Britain and Argentina both claim the islands?
Both sides cite early history. Britain points to a settlement it founded and a plaque left when it departed, plus its retaking of the islands in 1833 and continuous administration since. Argentina argues it inherited Spain's rights when it became independent and made its own formal claim when the islands were uninhabited.
Is Rivero still celebrated in Argentina?
Yes, particularly around the 1982 war, when the government promoted him as an early resister to British rule. Streets, schools, and monuments have borne his name, and his inclusion on the 50-peso note cemented that patriotic image even as historians questioned it.