Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani , through the company Baguales Acquisitions SA , which includes former tennis player Gastón Gaudio , “acquired nearly 10,000 hectares in the Río Negro mountain range, near the Villegas River,” according to the Letra P website.
There, they are planning a luxury residence and moving forward with the construction of three hydroelectric plants to supply power to their exclusive ski resort, Baguales, south of Bariloche.
Gaudio is a partner of Abdulhadi Mana A Sh Al-Hajri , a Qatari businessman and brother-in-law of the emir himself. “Al-Hajri was the one who, during the Qatar 2022 awards ceremony, placed the black camel-hair cape symbolizing Gulf royalty on Lionel Messi,” the outlet noted.
The purchase of land on fiscal lands that, at the time, were sold at symbolic prices by the radical government of Río Negro of Miguel Saiz , to firms such as Belgian Urban Renovation Company (BURCO) and the brothers Marcelo Mindlin and José Mindlin , passed into the hands of Arab investors and capital.
On the Atlantic coast of Río Negro, near the Puerto Lobos reserve , capital from the United Arab Emirates acquired the largest private airport in Patagonia, which was owned by Nicolás Van Ditmar , known as a front man for Anglo-Zionist millionaire Joe Lewis .
"The Manzil SA group is the visible face of these interests in the region. The company, chaired by Jorge Ortiz and also including Ignacio Petrocchi Massuh, has as its majority shareholders Osama Hussein Saleh Hussein Alahdaly and Matar Suhail Ali Al Yabhouni Al Dhaheri, members of the Emirati business elite ," Letra P reports.
At the time, legislator Magdalena Odarda warned that the provincial government authorized these operations without convening public hearings or allowing access to information, and questioned the fact that the Rio Negro police presence in these private areas is almost nonexistent.
In the area known as Rincón del Diablo , on former properties owned by Marcelo Mindlin , the Hunting Lodge big-game hunting reserve was built with Emirati capital. There, the extraction of aggregates and the use of freshwater bodies of water were also authorized without prior consultation with indigenous communities or environmental impact studies.
"The business network is completed by the Amaike trust and Dunia Inmobiliaria SA, companies that connect Arab investors with local businessmen and figures such as Nicolás van Ditmar, identified as Joe Lewis's representative in Patagonia; and Hugo Barabucci, former polo player and founder of La Albertina, who forged ties with Matar Al Yabhouni, another key name in this investment landscape ," reported Letra P.
Patagonia thus became one of the key players on the global chessboard for these Arab capitals, which, for more than a decade, began diversifying their investment portfolios, moving away from traditional financial assets and focusing on infrastructure, real estate, soccer clubs, and strategic land and water acquisitions abroad. "With local partners, tax benefits, and limited state oversight, the lands of southern Argentina are becoming a refuge for Arab fortunes seeking to secure resources and diversify their assets in times of climate crisis and geopolitical tension," Letra P reported.
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