The scandalous and dishonorable installation of the LeoLabs Argentina SRL radar in Tolhuin, Tierra del Fuego , became the center of a press operation launched by the United States embassy this Saturday, October 4, 2025, from the newspaper La Nación . In an article signed by journalist and editor Pablo Fernández Blanco , the Mitre-Saguier family newspaper , minimizes the military risk of the antenna field and presses for the reactivation of the system; seeking to pave the way for the government of Javier Milei to give in to the explicit demand of the US Southern Command , and thus break once and for all, the principle of national sovereignty that safeguards the Fuegian people just 600 kilometers from the Malvina Islands .

The Buenos Aires daily's report attempts to defuse the alarm, proposing that the British and Irish-owned radar is simply a tool to avoid collisions with "space junk" and suggesting that, unlike other LeoLabs stations around the world, this one would not have military capability. This thesis blatantly contradicts the Argentine Ministry of Defense's own 2023 technical report and much of the company's own global activities, which makes no secret of its agreements with the United Kingdom Department of Defense and its partnerships with other technologies to meet the needs of Donald Trump's "Golden Dome" program.

Dismantling the Central Argument of La Nación

The La Nación article relies on two main arguments to push for reactivation : the alleged military safety of the Tolhuin radar and the company's promise to eliminate British involvement . Both points are refuted by concrete facts and official documentation:

1.    "It can only track satellites and space junk": FALSE. The August 2023 report by the Ministry of Defense , backed by the country's military-scientific elite (CONAE, FFAA, INVAP), determined that the LeoLabs AGSR system is "dual-use" , capable of tracking non-cooperative targets such as intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles , and military satellites. That is, a covert intelligence tool . This capability was recently ratified: in September 2025, it was revealed that LeoLabs participated in exercises with the US military industry to test the tracking of hypersonic missiles , a key project for Donald Trump's "Golden Dome" defense program. Furthermore, the company reported having detected the malfunction of the Russian military satellite Cosmos 2553 , demonstrating its clear orientation towards warlike objectives.

2.    "Minimal and passive British participation": MISLEADING. While the corporate structure reported by La Nación (95% Irish and 5% British, both controlled by the US parent company) suggests a smaller British stake, the Argentine Defense Ministry report emphasized that the establishment of a British-owned company in Tierra del Fuego is "totally incompatible" with the National Defense Policy Directive (NDPD) . The risk is not only the percentage, but also the illegal military persistence of the United Kingdom in the Malvinas. Furthermore, the document warned that four of the six LeoLabs stations are located in countries of the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), implying that the information captured on Argentine soil is "feasible to be distributed" among their intelligence services. The promise to eliminate the 5% British stake is a minor concession that does not negate the threat of espionage.

Southern Command Pressure and Libertarian Vulnerability

The La Nación article has a clear objective: to justify giving in to Washington's military and financial pressure. The head of the U.S. Southern Command, Admiral Alvin Holsey , has expressly requested that Milei's government reactivate the radar in the context of the escalating war in Ukraine.

This request is part of a context of strong constraints: the reactivation of the radar adds to the US interest in involving the Southern Command in Argentine Antarctic development, specifically in the Integrated Naval Base planned for Ushuaia , and in the efforts to establish a logistics and support base for the submarine fleet in the Beagle Channel.

Once again, as in so many other instances in Argentina's tainted history, the newspaper La Nación operates like this, acting as a pressure agent to force the government to yield to the greed of the U.S. embassy, minimizing the political impact of a decision that threatens sovereignty.

The Fuegian Plot: Corruption and Evasion of Disarmament

The initial scandal in Tierra del Fuego, which the La Nación article barely touches on, demonstrates the darkness under which the project was conceived:

Despite the fact that the national permit was revoked and the Melella government was forced to remove the environmental clearance, the radar remains installed . Even so, in tandem, the Tierra del Fuego administration and the company are evading the physical dismantling order. Melella is playing fast and loose after having gone to court to decide one day to authorize him to remove the IGJ registration. An administrative dodge that in no way guarantees that the device, with its high-powered infrastructure, will be rendered inoperable.

The reactivation of this Anglo-American spy radar at the gateway to Antarctica and one step away from the Malvinas Islands, validated by a press operation, is nothing less than an act of surrendering historic sovereignty at the mercy of the financial needs of a libertarian government that is falling apart, and of a Tierra del Fuego administration that will raffle off - for almost identical reasons - the last remnants of its political capital, even if it has to hand over the present and future of the province that contains within its jurisdiction, the Malvinas Islands, the South Atlantic and the Argentine Antarctic sector.