By Telma Luzzani, on May 4, 2025.
US military expansion in Tierra del Fuego
The United States’ advance in the region is underpinned by heavy militarization, which presidents such as Javier Milei and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa are facilitatating with submission.
“The day is not far off when three stars and stripes will mark the extent of our territory at three equidistant points: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal, and the third at the South Pole. The entire hemisphere will be ours in fact, as, by virtue of our racial superiority, it is already ours morally.”
These words of former US President William Taft (1909-1913), spoken at the beginning of the 20th century, seem to be the source of inspiration for the current president, Donald Trump. The visit of Vice President JD Vence to Greenland, Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the Panama Canal, and Admiral Alvin Hosley, head of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, to Tierra del Fuego seeks to close the circle around our continent.
This illegal advance by the United States in the region is underpinned by a strong militarization that presidents such as Javier Milei and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa facilitate with submission.
In the case of Ecuador, Noboa not only allowed the installation of a US naval base on the Galapagos Islands (with the consequent deployment of aircraft, ships, and troops), but also authorized the reconstruction of the Manta base by the Pentagon.
Even more seriously, Noboa sealed a strategic alliance with former Marine Erik Prince, founder of the mercenary company Blackwater, to provide Ecuador’s forces with “advice and training.” Due to numerous accusations against Blackwater for crimes committed against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, it had to change its name to Academi.
Ecuador’s Constitution, following a reform approved during the presidency of Rafael Correa, explicitly prohibits the establishment of military bases and foreign troops in the country. Under the pretext of drug trafficking, Noboa managed to circumvent the Constitution and call for “international cooperation to strengthen our capabilities and more effectively address security challenges.”
The excuse of drug trafficking or organized crime could also be used in Argentina. Could it be a coincidence that the seizure of half a ton of cocaine in the Paraná River coincided with the military operation “Presidente Julio Argentino Roca” in Salta, aimed at “controlling organized crime,” and with the visit of the head of the Southern Command to Tierra del Fuego, who was allowed to snoop around the Integrated Southern Base in Ushuaia and the Antarctic Logistics Hub, strategic projects for the domination of the South Atlantic and Antarctica?
If the pieces of the puzzle are scattered and disjointed, it is impossible to understand what the real plan is.
“The US needs to deploy all kinds of weapons of war: aircraft, ships, and nuclear submarines. But it’s not to fight drug trafficking or organized crime. They need the Galapagos base because of China, as part of their strategy to control the Pacific,” said Andrés Arauz, former presidential candidate for the Correa-led party, Revolución Ciudadana, on his account on the X platform.
The same logic can be applied to the interoceanic and geostrategic moves in Panama and Tierra del Fuego.
The Panama Canal
At the beginning of the 20th century, the plan of former President Taft and his three stars and stripes flags was to expel the dominant powers of Europe, especially the United Kingdom, from the continent. Today, in US military and intelligence documents, China appears as an enemy or “external state actor” (ESA).
It is worth looking back at history. In 1880, the French-owned Universal Interoceanic Canal Company of Panama, which had been building the locks to compensate for the difference in elevation between the two oceans, was the victim of a series of press campaigns that damaged its image, among other problems. In 1889, the French Panama Canal Company went bankrupt, and in 1902, with the help of banker J.P. Morgan, the government of President Theodore Roosevelt (Taft’s mentor and predecessor) bought the French concession for $40 million, 60% less than what had been invested.
Panama was then a province of Colombia. Washington had been instigating a sector of the Panamanian bourgeoisie to seek independence with the promise that, separated from Bogotá, they would do big business. On November 3, 1903, Panama declared its independence. That day, several US warships were stationed off the coast of the canal. In 1914, the US inaugurated its Southern Command headquarters in the Canal Zone, where it also set up its “genocidal military factory,” the School of the Americas.
Under an agreement with former President James Carter, the canal returned to its owner, Panama, in 1999. Donald Trump is now seeking to regain control of this militarily and commercially strategic location. He began his crusade at the very beginning of his term in January 2025, blaming Panama for ceding control of the canal to China and charging inappropriate fees to the US.
Two weeks later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Panama. The pressure on Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino was such that he immediately announced that he would not renew the memorandum of understanding on the “Belt and Road Initiative” signed with China in 2017.
The parade of US officials in Panama did not stop there. Admiral Holsey of the Southern Command was followed by his boss, Defense Minister Peter Hegseth, a television presenter, writer, and National Guard officer. “Today, the Panama Canal faces new threats,” Hegseth said. “The US will not allow communist China or any other country to jeopardize the operation or integrity of the canal. I want to be very clear. China did not build this canal, does not operate this canal, and will not arm this canal,” threatened the Pentagon chief.
The US obsession is fueled not only by the increasingly clear decline of its influence in the region and the world, but also by China’s growing presence, not through military pressure but through infrastructure that benefits the host country and Beijing.
Washington feels this challenge and wants to stop it. In the case of the Galapagos and Panama, the nightmare is called “Puerto de Chancay” in Peru, a state-of-the-art logistics center that is planned as one of the stops on China’s “Silk Road” in our region. The megaport (the first smart port in Latin America) will give Brazil and Bolivia access to the Pacific. Chancay is expected to generate an additional $4.5 billion in revenue and create 8,000 direct jobs in Peru.
The strategic Tierra del Fuego
“The US wants to reinforce the long-standing military collaboration between the two nations with the aim of strengthening regional security and advancing shared interests,” said the head of the Southern Command, who also visited the Integrated Southern Base in Ushuaia and the Antarctic Logistics Hub. The US embassy in Buenos Aires explained the reasons: “to learn more about operations at the base and the key role they play in protecting maritime routes vital to global trade.”
Gustavo Melella, governor of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and South Atlantic Islands, did not accompany the visit because he considers it a surrender of Argentine sovereignty by the national government. For Melella, stirring up the specter of Chinese danger is just a ploy to justify that surrender. “The hypocrisy on the part of a large sector of national politics is evident, when a media operation was used to make people believe that a Chinese base would be built in Tierra del Fuego.”
“Tierra del Fuego is a zone of peace and we do not need foreign military bases, which would also violate UN resolutions that we cite today in our crusade for the Malvinas,” added the governor.
Be careful. The military colonial occupation is rapidly taking shape. A base on the continent or in Tierra del Fuego, a few kilometers from the NATO military base in the Malvinas, is not only an illegal occupation but also a real danger that Argentina will be involved in someone else’s war. If NATO is capable of waging war in Europe “to the last Ukrainian,” the US, which wants to preserve its hegemonic power at all costs, could use our young people as cannon fodder.