U.S. Officials Push Business and Security Agenda in Argentina

Christopher Landau is leading a U.S. tour of Paraguay and Argentina from October 19 to 26, taking Washington’s business and security agenda straight to senior government officials and private-sector leaders. The State Department says the trip will advance U.S. interests in the hemisphere, but people who live with the consequences of those priorities have no place on the announced meeting schedule.

Landau, the US Deputy Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, is traveling with Juan Pablo Segura, an Argentine-born businessman appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the region last August. They’re due to meet Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno at Buenos Aires’ San Martín Palace at 2pm next Thursday. Official Casa Rosada channels announced their arrival date on Sunday.

Who Sets the Agenda

The State Department says Landau will meet “senior Argentine government officials and private-sector leaders.” The reported schedule lists no community groups or grassroots organizers. It says nothing about mutual aid, direct action or horizontal organizing shaping the visit; officials and business leaders are the announced participants.

Business and security anchor Donald Trump’s new security doctrine, which aims to keep outside powers from gaining a foothold in the hemisphere. Landau is one of the senior U.S. diplomats tasked with promoting U.S. interests in Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada. Before this tour, he appeared alongside Quirno in New York, where the two signed the Andes-Atlantic Corridor infrastructure agreement.

U.S. officials announced the corridor on September 23 during the latest United Nations General Assembly. They say they want to “build on the momentum” and seek “ways to drive economic growth, increase US investment and strengthen security cooperation.” The initiative casts the plans as part of strategic competition with China, with U.S. investment envisioned for railways, waterways, ports, oil pipelines and energy infrastructure. Vaca Muerta’s shale reserves and the mining sector sit at its core. The report doesn’t say what role local communities have in deciding those priorities.

Economic Power, in Their Own Words

Segura called “narcoterrorism” a “threat to countries’ sovereignty” and said the United States would focus on it during the visit. Speaking to El Observador, he stated the leverage plainly: “One of the strongest tools the United States has is economic power. We are seeing that in Argentina.” The report identifies Segura as a businessman and the son of Argentine immigrants.

The tour starts in Asunción, where Santiago Peña has become a leading advocate of the Trump administration’s policy of “containing Chinese interference.” That language frames the visit as a contest between state powers, while the corridor’s investment plans place infrastructure and energy at the center.

Argentina’s National Security Ministry announced on October 5 that the United States had approved US$13.35 million in funding and that a regional unit of the State Department’s anti-narcotics office would open in Argentina. Of that sum, US$7.5 million would fund projects in Argentina, with the rest set aside for “regional initiatives,” increasing current cooperation tenfold. The ministry offered no further details on the unit’s operations.

The Political Calendar

President Javier Milei isn’t expected to meet Landau, presidential spokesperson Adrián Ravier said. Milei is due in Spain on October 21 and plans to use his time in Europe to strengthen ties with conservative international allies ahead of elections Pedro Sánchez called for November.

Vice-President JD Vance is scheduled to travel to Argentina after the U.S. midterm elections on November 5. The Casa Rosada confirmed a “regional visit,” potentially in the third week of November, based on reports the White House hasn’t yet confirmed. The report says this would be the first visit by a U.S. vice-president since Mike Pence’s trip in April 2017.

Milei had just returned from his second U.S. visit in a month. He spent 36 hours there and received the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “World Champion of Free Enterprise” award. He said he had spoken by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, though he didn’t get a photograph with Trump. He also attended a gala organized by La Derecha Diario and the Heritage Foundation, described in the report as a controversial think tank behind Project 2025, which envisages a “conservative revolution” in the United States and has links to Vance.

The State Department said the visits “reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to a safe, secure and prosperous Western Hemisphere.” An unspecified security unit and an investment agenda built around state strategy and private-sector leaders accompany that official promise.