Governor Gustavo Melella 's legal strategy to try to halt the intervention in the Port of Ushuaia suffered a fatal blow, and not from his national "enemies," but from the Ushuaia Federal Prosecutor's Office itself. Opinion No. 3/2026 from the Ushuaia Prosecutor's Office, dated January 31, 2025 , which Agenda Malvinas obtained, deems the province's filing irregular and exposes a desperate maneuver to circumvent the State Prosecutor's Office's legal oversight .

The prosecutor confirms: Melella cannot act alone

The opinion of prosecutor Candela Fernández Núñez is damning . In her conclusions, she points out that, although the Governor holds the legal representation of the province, the Fuegian constitutional framework (Article 167 of the Provincial Constitution and Law No. 3) specifically and necessarily entrusts judicial representation to the State Prosecutor's Office.

The prosecutor is clear: Melella's appearance with the sole legal representation of Emiliano Fossatto, without the intervention of the State Prosecutor, constitutes a "defect in legal standing that hinders the regularity of the procedural proceedings." In plain terms: the filing was doomed from the start because it failed to comply with the laws of the very province that Melella claims to defend.

Why was it hidden from the State Prosecutor's Office?

This is the point that raises the most suspicion. Why did the Governor prefer to pay $60,000 to an external firm and send a political appointee like Fossatto (who, let's remember, is not federally licensed), instead of involving the technical body responsible for protecting provincial assets?

The answer seems obvious: the State Prosecutor exercises a legality control that Melella appears to want to circumvent. By trying to bypass the natural oversight body, the Provincial Executive not only committed a technical error, but also demonstrated a complete disregard for the institutions of Tierra del Fuego .

The critical points of the report:

1.    Jurisdiction in doubt: The prosecution suggests that, since this is a direct conflict between a Province and the Nation, the case could fall under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation . This means that filing the case in Calvete's local court was, from the outset, a waste of time and resources.

2.    The "order" to rectify the situation: Given what she describes as an "irregular omission," the prosecutor suggests that the judge order Melella to properly integrate the State Prosecutor's Office into the legal representation. In other words, she orders the Governor to do what he should have done from the very beginning: respect the law.

3.    Lack of support: The ruling makes it clear that the analysis of the unconstitutionality of the intervention cannot proceed if the basic requirements of who and how they appear before the court have not even been met.

 A government that sabotages itself

Ushuaia is witnessing a shameful spectacle today. While the port remains under intervention and Dr. César Lerena warns against surrendering sovereignty to foreign powers, Melella's team is becoming entangled in its own procedural traps.

The prosecutor's report confirms that the "pathetic" judicial fiasco we denounced was not a subjective assessment, but a technical reality. Melella spent fortunes of Tierra del Fuego taxpayers' money on outside lawyers only to end up being reprimanded by a federal prosecutor for not knowing—or not wanting—to comply with the Provincial Constitution. Now, the ball is in Judge Calvete's court, but the damage to the provincial administration's credibility is already irreversible.