The capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and the South Atlantic Islands is preparing for a Monday of high political tension with the arrival of President Javier Milei, amid the electoral campaign ahead of the national parliamentary elections.
The visit, purely for campaign purposes, seeks to bolster the La Libertad Avanza (LLA) candidates for senators and national representatives , but it takes place amid a climate of deep unrest and confrontation in a province that feels strategically affected by the national government's policies.
Milei's arrival in the capital of Tierra del Fuego, where he was declared "persona non grata" last April by the Ushuaia Deliberative Council following his remarks about the Malvinas Islands , has reignited the controversy surrounding national sovereignty and southern development. The President's position, which at the commemorative event on April 2nd expressed the political will for the British population occupying the Malvinas Islands to decide their future , clashes with Argentine sentiment and rights over the archipelago .
Added to this is Milei's public admiration for figures such as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – who ordered the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano cruiser outside the exclusion zone during the 1982 war – Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill, figures historically opposed to Argentine interests .
The strategic alliance with the United States, championed by the president, is viewed with extreme concern in the south: Milei theorizes that this partnership could lead to the recovery of sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands, feigning ignorance that Washington and the United Kingdom are unconditional partners in NATO, a bloc to which the president himself has expressed his desire to incorporate Argentina.
Another source of conflict is the erosion of Tierra del Fuego's industrial development. Deregulation measures and the removal of tax restrictions on electronic product imports, formalized by Decree 333/2025 , favor importers and generate unfair competition for local industry, undermining jobs and the productive system of Tierra del Fuego. Tierra del Fuego's industry has historically been an economic engine and a demographic pillar in the province. The threat to its continued existence deepens the social crisis in the far south.
On the geopolitical level, Milei's policies seriously compromise the future of Argentine Antarctic development . His administration has opened the door to US military interference in the planning of an Antarctic Logistics Hub, historically conceived as a sovereign project . This strategy of unconditional alignment with Washington began with a meeting in April of last year in Ushuaia with the former head of the Southern Command, Laura Richardson, and intensified with the visit of Admiral Alvin Holsey, current head of SOUTHCOM . Holsey not only ratifies the policy of interference, but has also expressed his intention to establish a logistics base for submarines in the Beagle Channel and reactivate the controversial British and Irish-owned LeoLabs radar in Tolhuin , a facility that the Southern Command itself has described as a dual-use (military/civilian) tool in a context of global military escalation . This advance is also supported by the successive statements that Richardson made in previous years, regarding the natural resources of Latin America as assets at the disposal of the United States .
The local context of the presidential visit is marked by the profound socioeconomic and political crisis the country is experiencing, a consequence of the capitalist "shock" policies of the La Libertad Avanza government . The depletion of public health and education, the destruction of the scientific field, the closure of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, and the constant deterioration of employment are compounded by the privatization and sale of state assets, deepening the recession and social unrest.
In this context, Javier Milei's visit to Ushuaia is not seen as an institutional gesture, but rather as a provocation by those defending southern sovereignty and the local production model . The president's arrival in the southernmost province is a symbol of the tensions between a central government that prioritizes foreign alignment and a province that has historically been a bastion of sovereign rights in the South Atlantic and Antarctica.
The Fuegian Question: Accompaniment or Rejection?
The complex and difficult situation facing Tierra del Fuego, directly linked to presidential policies, but also to local policies due to the irate management of Governor Gustavo Melella—in terms of industry, sovereignty, and geopolitics—raises a crucial question: Will Tierra del Fuego society, or a significant portion of it, support the President in his campaign?
Despite critical remarks from a segment of the political and civic community, Milei's political party is confident of a large turnout . By the end of Monday, with the number of participants in the activities counted and the intensity of the expressions of support or rejection, it will be possible to gauge whether the events criticized on the strategic and economic front truly coincide with the popular sentiment of the people of Tierra del Fuego. It will also serve as a barometer for the forces opposing Milei in Tierra del Fuego, who will arrive on October 26th with irreconcilable positions and divisions, which will play in favor of the libertarian campaign .