Today, Sunday, March 4; four days after the Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of the United States of America in Argentina, Abigail Dressel ; made public having met with the Governor of Tierra del Fuego Gustavo Melella and part of his cabinet at the headquarters of the Tierra del Fuego government in Ushuaia; neither the provincial Communication Secretariat, nor the president on his social networks, nor his Secretary of Malvinas Andrés Dachary ; have given any official information about the meeting, of which the date is also unknown.
The only existing data is that published by the American diplomat in X, last Wednesday afternoon, where she expressed her “pleasure” of “talking” with the governor of Tierra del Fuego “about how to strengthen cooperation between Tierra del Fuego and the US in areas of mutual interest.” Aspiring, almost like an epitaph, to “work together for the benefit and prosperity of our peoples.”
Thank you Governor @gustavomelella for welcoming me to your beautiful province. I enjoyed talking about how to enhance cooperation between Tierra del Fuego and the US in areas of mutual interest. We look forward to working together for the benefit and prosperity of our peoples. pic.twitter.com/slghxzw0Bh
The questions arise by themselves: what kind of cooperation and empowerment did they talk about? In what areas and what would the projects be? Did they talk about Milei's announcements last year in Ushuaia, regarding the construction of an Integrated Naval Base with the US? Did they discuss the radar of English capital installed by LeoLabs in Tierra del Fuego? What was the complete agenda of the meeting? Will there be future meetings? Were business channels generated? Between whom? For whom? Were US investments in Tierra del Fuego evaluated? Or the other way around; of Tierra del Fuego capital in the United States.
Nothing. Not a single statement. Not a paragraph. Not a single word from the same governor, who on April 2 of last year not only called the American general “persona non grata,” but also “complicit” in the British occupation of the South Atlantic. The same president who, before that, in January 2023 and then in February 2024, had warned the US that he would not allow its interference in the management of the strategic resources of “the Latin American peoples (…), and much less under duress.”
Paradoxes of Tierra del Fuego politics, where it is no longer necessary to pay attention to see radical changes in opinion and attitude on the part of a government that until a few months ago was harshly critical of the expansionist policies of the United States, and now meekly and obediently exposes itself to what the American embassy dictates.
“Use the pen” Melella
In her post, the American diplomat uploaded three photographs inside the Augusto Laserre Hall of the Government House of Tierra del Fuego. In one of them, she shows Gustavo Melella , showing a box with three pens and an agenda that the U.S. Embassy in Argentina gave him.
The gift may have a suggestive message printed on it from the US diplomatic representation in the country, so that the governor of Tierra del Fuego can sign agreements of "cooperation (...) in areas of mutual interest."
Something like a satire of the phrase that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner occasionally fired at former president Alberto Fernández , “use the pen, Alberto”; but in this case from Dressel to Melella .