Government formalizes administrative takeover of Ushuaia port

The national government has officially launched a 12-month administrative takeover of the Port of Ushuaia after detecting apparent financial irregularities and the diversion of public funds.  The measure was ordered by the National Ports and Navigation Agency (ANPYN, by its Spanish initials) and published this Thursday in the Official Gazette. The government of Tierra del Fuego province has said it will go to court to block the central government decision. The measure was signed by the agency’s executive director, Iñaki Arreseygor. From now on, operational, technical and administrative management of the maritime terminal will be assumed by the national government, although the takeover — known in Spanish as an “intervention” — may be extended beyond the initially planned year if the irregularities are not corrected. According to ANPYN, the decision was prompted by the detection of resource diversions that, instead of being allocated to port maintenance and upgrades, were allegedly used to cover other provincial administration expenses, in violation of current regulations. Inspections also reportedly revealed operational shortcomings, infrastructure risks and a lack of response from provincial authorities to requests for corrective action. The agency also stressed that the move followed the absence of concrete responses to previous inspections, complaints by port workers alleging asset stripping, and concerns raised by shipping companies operating at the port. The intervention comes in the middle of the cruise season, heightening political tensions with the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands, whose governor questioned the decision and said terminal operations are continuing normally. To court over the port? The government of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands said it will take legal action against the takeover of the port. “There is a significant infringement on the province’s autonomy,” officials in Governor Gustavo Melella’s administration said. Sources in the provincial government told the Herald’s sister title Ámbito that they are working on “the best legal strategy for the Provincial Ports Directorate to regain real and concrete autonomy.”  “It will be a strictly legal strategy. We are going to court,” they confirmed in comments to the outlet. The administrative intervention of the port is under the leadership of Iñaki Miguel Arreseygor, a lawyer with management training and an extensive career in both the public and private sectors. From the National Ports and Navigation Agency, a strategic body created in 2025, Arreseygor has taken on responsibility for leading a process with significant institutional impact on the national port system. Arreseygor is a lawyer and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA). His entry into politics came as an adviser on Constitutional Affairs and Media in the Argentine Senate, where he began to build a technical-political profile linked to public management and institutional design. From BA Province to the port authority His rise within the state apparatus was consolidated during the terms of María Eugenia Vidal as governor of Buenos Aires province and Mauricio Macri as president. In 2015, he was appointed provincial director of Procurement and Contracting at the Buenos Aires Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Services, a key post for resource management and the execution of public works. He was later appointed as a state-appointed director at Mirgor, a company that produces air conditioners and mobile phones and is owned by businessman Nicolás Caputo. That role strengthened his experience in corporate environments tied to industry and logistics. In May 2024, Arreseygor took office as undersecretary for Ports and Navigable Waterways, replacing Pablo Piccirilli, a move that reinforced his presence in an area central to foreign trade and the country’s strategic infrastructure. Finally, as of January 3, 2025, he was appointed executive director of the ANPYN, an autonomous body operating under the Economy Ministry, for a four-years term. From that position, Arreseygor is now directly responsible for the administrative intervention of the port of Ushuaia — a measure with strong institutional and strategic impact that has placed the Fuegian port under direct national government control and thrust it into the center of Argentina’s port, logistics and geopolitical agenda. Originally published on Ámbito Cover image: Ships in the Port of Ushuaia. Credit: Arild Vågen via Wikimedia Commons under CC Share-alike 3.0