Amid strategic negotiations with China for the construction of a petrochemical plant and with Russia's Gazprom to reactivate fields abandoned by YPF , the Tierra del Fuego government faces a political dilemma: the influence of Gastón Roma, a former PRO deputy with a past fraught with controversy, now a lobbyist for foreign interests .

Roma, who served as chairman of the Defense Committee during the sinking of the ARA San Juan , now promotes Norwegian salmon farming projects and acts as an intermediary with the Russian state oil company, raising questions about the suitability and transparency of these agreements.

His figure achieved greater notoriety when he defended before the Deliberative Council of Río Grande an unusual binational bridge project in Chile financed by Argentina , illustrated with a childish drawing that ridiculed its lack of credibility.

However, his current role is more worrisome: according to sources close to Gustavo Melella's government, Roma is a trusted agent in sensitive matters, specifically in the exploitation of natural resources . Added to this is his ties to the Norwegian company seeking to establish salmon farms in the province, despite environmental resistance and a law prohibiting large-scale activity.

The Melella government lobbyist, with the Minister of Security of Javier Milei's government, Patricia Bullrich .

Rome insists that its salmon project—based on a water recirculation system (RAS)—is pollution-free and will generate employment, although specialists from CADIC and environmental groups deny this.

At the same time, its name appears in the negotiations between Terra Ignis (the Tierra del Fuego oil company) and Gazprom to exploit oil areas in the north-central part of Tierra del Fuego Island, and the fields recently abandoned by YPF.

Gastón Roma, in 2018 in his role as National Deputy, meeting with officials from the Russian Federation.

The former congressman not only faces accusations of falsifying endorsements within the PRO party and even family disputes, but his close ties to the Russian embassy during his term paint him as a lobbyist of dubious neutrality.

Furthermore, Melella's consultation reveals the lack of technical expertise in his coalition, forcing him to rely on a figure whose career oscillates between the grotesque and the opportunistic .

While Tierra del Fuego stakes its energy future on alliances with global powers, the question is why a government that sees itself as progressive would legitimize an operator linked to the worst vices of the Argentine political right, which Mauricio Macri reinaugurated in 2015.