The Economic and Fiscal Promotion Law, 19.640 , was not conceived in 1972 as a mere accounting benefit for private balance sheets; it was a strategic state decision . The objective was clear: to populate the far south, consolidate Argentina's presence against colonial ambitions in the South Atlantic, and generate a development hub that would serve as a sovereign shield in the southernmost province .

Today, that "contract" between the Argentine people (who forgo tax revenue to sustain the regime) and the business sector is being broken unilaterally and silently. The case of the Mirgor Group , recently exposed by the Polo Sur website , is the most alarming symptom of a process of territorial depletion .

From sovereign platform to corporate "cash cow"

The data is irrefutable : in 2018, the Tierra del Fuego tax regime accounted for 85% of Mirgor's revenue . By 2024, that figure had fallen to less than 45%. While the company uses Tierra del Fuego's tax benefits to accumulate capital, those same resources—which should be reinvested in local infrastructure, such as the long-delayed port of Río Grande—end up financing plants in Baradero, companies in Uruguay, or logistics hubs in Miami .

It is clear that this is not just a "successful" financial move; it is, in strategic terms, part of the " economic de-Malvinization ."

If the capital generated under the protection of Argentine sovereignty on the main island escapes to other latitudes, the geopolitical meaning of Law 19.640 is completely distorted.

Private profits at the expense of national effort

The effort of the 200,000 Argentinians who live in the province, enduring the harsh weather and remoteness to build their country, cannot be the fuel for a corporation to become "independent" from the territory that made it great.

When Mirgor cuts labor costs and makes local employment more precarious, after having reaped multimillion-dollar dividends while Tierra del Fuego's infrastructure remains unfinished—such as the nonexistent port project in Río Grande that it promised to undertake—and shifts its center of gravity out of the province, it is, in practice, weakening Argentina's position in the South. A Tierra del Fuego without a strong industry, without reinvestment, and with a population stagnating due to a lack of opportunities is a vulnerable province.

The need for a regime with a territorial commitment

It's time for national and Tierra del Fuego politics to stop avoiding uncomfortable debate. The special industrial regime cannot be a blank check. If the regime's justification is sovereignty and population growth, the counterpart must be mandatory reinvestment in the territory .

This isn't about attacking business growth, but about demanding loyalty to the nation that granted it exceptional conditions for production. The "silent dismantling" of Mirgor is a wake-up call: either we align the interests of businesses with the interests of national sovereignty, or we will end up seeing how the efforts of an entire country only serve to swell foreign bank accounts, leaving the bi-continental province as an empty shell in a strategic enclave that cannot tolerate weakness.

Sovereignty is defended with territory, with people and, fundamentally, with capital rooted in the land that generates it.