Argentina revives plan for South Atlantic naval base amid Falklands tensions

USHUAIA (ARGENTINA) – Along the Beagle Channel, an icy stretch of water at the southern tip of the Americas, a concrete slab rises from hills covered in low, brownish scrub. This is the dormant site of the proposed Ushuaia naval base that right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei wants to revive to serve as a military and logistical hub in the South Atlantic. In early September, he ordered that priority be given in the government’s 2027 budget to “the development of the Integrated Naval Base and other strategic projects.” That message came in a speech where Milei also took a tougher…