Consistency doesn't seem to be the strong suit of the current Tierra del Fuego provincial administration. In an unprecedented act of political cynicism, Governor Gustavo Melella has submitted Bill 131/26 to the Legislature, a proposed law creating the Port Investment, Development, and Management Company (SA). Under the guise of a "modernization" inspired by the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, the governor seeks to implement what the Polo Sur website has aptly described as privatization by design .

A Public Limited Company without state controls

The heart of the project is the transformation of the port into a Public Limited Company governed by Law 19,550 . But the alarming fact lies in Article 4 : the new entity will be explicitly excluded from the Law of Administrative Procedures and the provincial regime of State contracting.

To put it simply: the most important strategic asset of the maritime province will be managed with the discretion of a private company, without traditional public tenders, without state traceability and under an "agile management" that avoids the democratic scrutiny of control bodies .

The risk of transnationalization

Agenda Malvinas raises the following question: What guarantees exist that the port will not end up in the hands of foreign powers or companies linked to the British occupation of the Malvinas, or under the control of US or Israeli capital? The project explicitly authorizes the new company to "enter into contracts with international operators" and seek "private capitalization."

Melella's track record on sovereignty is, to say the least, worrying:

The Tolhuin Radar: It allowed the installation of a radar with military capabilities operated by British capital under a civilian facade.

Harbour Energy in the Phoenix Project: Melella has allowed the oil company that held 65% of an illegal project in the Malvinas ( Sea Lion ) between 2021 and 2022 to operate in Fuegian waters, violating the National Constitution and the laws that penalize the plundering of our usurped resources.

The "Golden Action": Sovereignty or Makeup?

To calm the waters, the project mentions that the Executive Branch will reserve a "golden share" for strategic decisions. However, as Polo Sur warns, this is merely symbolic. While the State retains this "medal" on its chest, the actual operations, capitalization, trusts, and contracts with international operators (the true power) are being transferred to a corporate structure designed to partner with foreign private capital.

The port as a "Business Platform"

Gustavo Melella 's statement regarding the transfer leaves no doubt about his current ideological stance, contrasting sharply with his protectionist past. The Governor justifies the transfer by citing the "internationalization of the shipping business" and the need to adapt to "modern management standards."

What Melella calls "efficiency" is actually the surrender of governance of the Gateway to Antarctica . By transforming the port into a business platform, its function as a tool for sovereignty and territorial development is diluted, leaving its fate tied to the private interests of international corporations that will no longer have to "circumvent" public controls in Tierra del Fuego.

For whom is the port being modernized?

The project empowers the Executive Branch to negotiate investment plans with private actors to capitalize the company. This authorization, coupled with the interest of groups like Mirgor (Nicky Caputo) in building their own terminals, suggests that the national intervention of January 2026 was merely the prelude to a larger land grab.

The question the Governor must answer is: Why, if the port belongs to the people of Tierra del Fuego, does he decide to remove it from the control of Tierra del Fuego's public laws?

Case 131/26 is the final confession of an administration that ran out of ideas and funds due to its own financial incompetence. Faced with the inability to defend the port in federal court, Melella opted for a desperate gamble: privatizing its management so that the problem—and the asset—would belong to someone else .

The port wasn't handed over with a signature on a Sunday night; it's being handed over in stages. First came the diversion of funds to OSEF, then the intervention by a national entity, and now this legislative "Trojan Horse" that aims to transform Tierra del Fuego's most strategic asset into a privately held corporation .