What began as a promising season for the Galician fleet—squid fishing in the Malvina Islands under an illegal British license that began in February—has culminated in a figure that calls into question Argentina's foreign and fisheries policy. At the close of the first Loligo squid fishing season of 2026 in the waters surrounding the islands, the quantification of the plunder reveals a staggering result: $499,412,088. Nearly half a billion US dollars that, in just 64 days, have been siphoned from the South American nation's continental shelf to end up in the accounts of Spanish companies and the coffers of the colonial administration.

The anatomy of dispossession in numbers

To help the Argentine people understand the extent of the resource drain, these are the definitive figures that the London-Vigo axis intends to normalize under the label of "normality" :

Half a trillion dollars: What does this money mean for Argentina?

To understand the gravity of inaction in the face of this plunder, we must translate those 500 million dollars into the national reality. This figure, generated with resources belonging to Argentina, is equivalent to:

1.    Colonial Support: It is the financial oxygen that allows the British administration in the Malvinas to maintain its fiscal surplus and continue projecting oil exploitation in the Sea Lion field.

2.    Defense and Control: It represents several times the annual budget that Argentina allocates to patrolling and surveillance of its entire Exclusive Economic Zone.

3.    Social Development: This is equivalent to the construction of ten high-complexity hospitals or the urbanization of hundreds of low-income neighborhoods on the continent.

The society of plunder

This is not a random event of nature; it is a geopolitical pincer movement . On one side, the United Kingdom acts as the major lessor of foreign waters, collecting illegal tolls to maintain its military and civilian enclave. On the other, Spain , through companies like Lanzal, Pescapuerta, and Grupo Pereira , acts as the enforcement arm, providing the vessels and technology to process the loot .

The plate of food of our sovereignty

Every time a European consumer buys Patagonian squid, they are paying the operational cost of the usurpation in the South Atlantic . The 16 ships returning to Galicia today with their holds full are not only arriving with fish or squid that generate thousands of direct jobs, economic and financial activity, and tax revenue; they are also carrying with them a fragment of our future and our territorial integrity.

10 kg pack of Patagonian squid, marketed by the Spanish company Loligo Seafood. According to the label in the upper left of the image, it was caught by the vessel PETREL, registration number FK-0507, belonging to the company Petrel Fishing Company , whose tax headquarters are in the Malvina Islands .

It is important to remember this figure of $500,000,000 so that no one can claim ignorance. Likewise, this plunder will not stop with statements or condemnations, but rather with a government policy that makes illegal fishing in the Malvinas an unsustainable financial venture for these companies.