Argentina: US SOUTHCOM Chief passes through – consequences to be seen shortly?
Admiral Holsey’s recent trip should produce visible results shortly, it is speculated
Argentine nationalist sectors are concerned that US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Chief Admiral Alvin Holsey’s recent visit could signal the beginning of a sovereignty handover to Washington, which President Javier Milei is believed to favor.
A Pentagon-funded, modernized military port with air, land, and naval capabilities near Antarctica would enhance US control over key maritime routes and resources, thus compromising Argentina’s neutrality vis-a-vis Russia and China. In this scenario, the Admiral’s low-profile tour (he did not meet with the Governor of Tierra del Fuego nor the Mayor of Ushuaia) would represent a geopolitical shift.
Under Milei, Argentina is moving forward in this direction of a strategic alignment with US military interests, particularly in controlling access to Antarctica and the Strait of Magellan. Critics argue that a US base would strain relations with China and Russia while sidelining regional partners like Brazil and Chile. Additionally, concerns have been raised about bypassing constitutional requirements for congressional approval of foreign troop deployment, which could even include US submarines in Ushuaia.
Holsey discreetly reviewed plans for a US-funded military base, reviving a project previously negotiated in 2023 by his predecessor, General Laura Richardson. Unlike earlier discussions, the US Department of Defense would directly finance the base without Treasury intervention, it was reported. The proposed facility would serve as a modernized military port with air, land, and naval capabilities accessing Antarctica and the Strait of Magellan routes.
Milei is perceived to be ceding territory as well as national defense supervision to a foreign power that is also a strategic partner of the United Kingdom, with whom Argentina still has a sovereignty dispute regarding the Falklands/Malvinas Islands. Hence, the Libertarian Government’s Antarctic logistics is well resisted by many.
The daughter of a 1982 War veteran who harbors strong feelings regarding the Malvinas cause, Vice President Victoria Villarruel, who hardly speaks with Milei, has been reported to concur with him on the installation of a US base, with Buenos Aires mostly interested in the White House financing it one way or the other.
Hence, it was left up to people to connect the dots at their own risk about the true nature of Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent’s recent trip to the Argentine capital, during which he announced that Washington would help Milei preserve the country’s financial stability.
Moreover, US President Donald Trump has, since his return to office, expressed his interest in the US resuming control of the Panama Canal. With that waterway out of the equation, the Strait of Magellan remains the only passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, so it would be fair to assume that the Republican leader has an eye on the matter, be it on the Argentine side or on Chile’s similar project in Punta Arenas.
In this context, the Pentagon approved Argentina’s purchase of 24 F-16 jets from Denmark. Although they will be delivered in dribs and drabs, they are -nevertheless- gestures of the winds of change blowing in the South Atlantic, with others expected to follow should construction of that integrated base commence.
The security of the South Atlantic cannot be left in the hands of an extra-continental power. The challenge presented here requires agreements between the countries of our continent from the Arctic to the Antarctic to set hemispheric defense policies, Villarruel said on April 2 in Ushuaia. Back then, she also recalled Richardson’s hyperpublicized trip to the area. In contrast, this year, the less noisy Holsey is believed to have taken a step further.
What is, for the time being, mere speculation should be producing visible consequences in the not-so-distant future.
