Aerial photo of Ushuaia, Argentina. Photo: Ushuaia Tourism Secretariat/Ushuaia.
The head of the US Southern Command, Alvin Holsey, will visit Argentina’s southernmost city to reinforce the project for a “joint naval base.” Analysts consulted by Sputnik warned that the US is seeking to militarize the area as part of its dispute with China.
The US Southern Command is insisting on establishing a presence in Argentina and moving forward with the establishment of a joint naval base at the southernmost tip of Argentinian territory, near Antarctica and the southernmost connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
While most international dignitaries visiting Argentina stay in Buenos Aires, US Southern Command commander Alvin Holsey included a visit to Ushuaia, the country’s southernmost city, on his official agenda.
Holsey’s predecessor, Laura Richardson, had already been to the city in April 2024 to visit, along with President Javier Milei, the Austral Naval Base, an Argentine Navy facility located on the Beagle Channel, one of the strategic connections between the Atlantic and Pacific in that area and a key logistics port for Antarctic operations. On that occasion, Milei and Richardson announced a “joint naval base” between the two countries.
Government “subordinates itself”
In an interview with Sputnik, Luciano Anzelini, PhD in social sciences (UBA) and master’s in international studies (Torcuato Di Tella University), considered that the presence of the new US military leader in Ushuaia confirms that the project for this joint base “is serious” for the Pentagon.
“If you look at the documents produced by the Pentagon and US intelligence over the past four or five years, you can see that, like never before, there is a significant presence of regions that were previously off the radar, such as the Arctic and Antarctica,” the expert noted.
Anzelini emphasized that, based on these documents, it can be seen how “the South Atlantic, the Antarctic projection, and the bi-oceanic nature of the region play an increasingly relevant role,” especially within the framework of “the global dispute with China.” In fact, the Asian giant’s penetration into the Southern Cone is viewed with particular concern in Washington, the academic explained.
For Anzelini, the biggest problem is that the geopolitical importance of the South Atlantic is not viewed with the same seriousness in the South American nation. “The importance of the region to the US imposes a logic on the Argentine government, which subordinates itself to this agenda due to its economic needs,” he emphasized.
The militarization of southern Argentina
Although almost a year has passed since the first announcement, the reforms necessary for a joint base in Ushuaia do not appear to have advanced, according to international analyst Moisés Solorza, a native of Ushuaia, who spoke to Sputnik Mundo.
For the expert, the very “chainsaw” that President Milei has applied to Argentinian public works, suspending the vast majority of projects, has had a paradoxical result in which “not a single cubic meter of earth has yet been moved with respect to the joint naval base.”
Solorza, for his part, links the joint base project to the US company Leolabs’ radar, installed in 2023 in Tolhuin, a city near Ushuaia, also in Tierra del Fuego province. The company is suspected of providing strategic military information to the US and UK governments.
For the specialist, the list of concerns should also include the increasing number of British military exercises “with live fire and drones” in the Falkland Islands, and even a recent agreement between the governments of Chile and the United Kingdom for the development of the Chilean naval industry in the south of the country.
“I think we’re running a serious risk on Tierra del Fuego Island, which is their last remaining stronghold for seizing a large portion of Argentine territory, given that they already have NATO in the Falkland Islands and are close to entering Antarctica,” the analyst warned.
In addition to questioning the “secrecy” surrounding these projects in Tierra del Fuego, Solorza lamented the lack of information among the Tierra del Fuego population on the issue and “the lack of political resolve by the Argentinian opposition” to prevent the advancement of these types of projects that “seek to militarize the area.”
(Sputnik Mundo) by Sergio Pintado
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JB/SL
