The province of Tierra del Fuego is facing one of the most critical moments in its history . The recent reduction in import tariffs, decreed by the national government of Javier Milei, not only threatens to destroy local industry , the last bastion of Argentine technological development in the south , but also highlights the complicity or incapacity of a provincial government more concerned with perpetuating its hold on power than defending the strategic interests of the southern region, the nerve center of bicontinental Argentina.
The Economic and Fiscal Promotion Law 19,640, passed in 1972, is the pillar that allowed for Tierra del Fuego's most fabulous population growth. From a mere 13,527 inhabitants in 1970—7,025 of whom were foreigners —to today's figure of over 200,000 , thanks to a model that the national government is now dynamiting with measures that benefit imports to the detriment of local production and the expansionist desires of Great Britain and the United States.
But this attack isn't just coming from Buenos Aires: Governor Gustavo Melella and his administration have demonstrated a complete lack of strategy to defend what should be essential.
While the province should be strengthening its industry, developing its economy based on its vital natural resources, implementing infrastructure projects in ports and maritime communications, strengthening its presence in the South Atlantic and Antarctica, and consolidating its geopolitical role in the face of US interventionism and territorial dispossession, along with Britain's monumental plundering of the Malvina Islands, Melella is only interested in constitutional reform that would allow him to be re-elected . This is yet another example of the pettiness of a leadership that, instead of honoring the legacy of those who fought for the Greater Province and those who gave their lives defending sovereignty in the 1982 war, prefers to negotiate with a national government that admires Margaret Thatcher and bows down at the altar of British and US interests.
It is no coincidence that the Fuegian Constitution does not mention Law 19,640, nor the South Atlantic, nor does it address the protection or development of the Antarctic, nor does it have guidelines on the defense of the Malvinas Islands, nor that its current government refuses to open a high-level debate. It is also no coincidence that it never addressed key legal cases—such as the ongoing lawsuit in the Federal Court of Río Grande regarding British oil expansion in the islands—or that legislators like Pablo Blanco (an ally of Milei) now pretend to appear as defenders of the industry when they were the ones who paved the way for its destruction.
The political system in Tierra del Fuego has, for the most part, been functional to dismantling and shrinking . Senators like the aforementioned Pablo Blanco and Representatives like Santiago Pauli and Ricardo Garramuño endorsed policies that weakened and continue to weaken the heart of the Province.
Faced with this situation, the only option is mobilization . Tierra del Fuego workers, the only ones who have consistently fought, must be supported by citizens who are aware that what's at stake is not just jobs, but the very existence of Tierra del Fuego as a productive and sovereign province.
Constitutional reform is urgent, but not the empty and opportunistic one proposed by Melella. Rather, one that incorporates the unrestricted defense of industry, Antarctic expansion, and rights over the Malvinas Islands. One that restores Tierra del Fuego's status as a maritime province and does not reduce it to an archipelago at the mercy of foreign interests.
The national government is advancing with a heartless and soulless policy, as those who worship Margaret Thatcher clearly demonstrate. But the greatest responsibility falls on those mandated to anticipate, resist, and put up a dignified and transparent fight, yet they fail to do so.
If the Tierra del Fuego leadership doesn't react, it will be the people who will have to hold them accountable. Because the vast province of Tierra del Fuego is not a colony: it is Argentine land, and its defense is an inalienable duty .
