Decisions not made during Alberto Fernández's national administration, nor during the actions of Gustavo Melella's Tierra del Fuego government, have serious consequences today. In the second meeting so far in 2025, Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the United States Southern Command, met with authorities from the Ministry of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Argentine Armed Forces . The head of SOUTHCOM again called for the reactivation of the high-power radar installed in Tolhuin , which operates under British control. This was reported yesterday by the website Iprofesional.com , and as of this writing, there was no denial.

The request is not whimsical; it is part of a broader strategy by the Donald Trump administration to strengthen the United States' geopolitical presence in the region, especially as a technological support for NATO in the event of a global escalation of the NATO-led war against Russia, with Ukraine as a stage of conflict.

In this context, Admiral Holsey has publicly expressed his concern about what he considers a "methodical incursion" by China into South America, especially in Patagonia , where the Asian country maintains a satellite-based scientific base for deep space monitoring, whose operation and specificity have been verified and certified by the current national government of Javier Milei.

In addition to reactivating the radar , the United States has also expressed interest in establishing a dock for its nuclear submarines in Ushuaia . This initiative has, however, been rejected early on by the Tierra del Fuego government and the mayors of Ushuaia and Río Grande, who consider it a threat to national sovereignty and a tool to consolidate the U.S. military presence in the South Atlantic and Antarctica.

The radar subsidiary of British and Irish companies

The radar of LEOLABS ARGENTINA SRL, a subsidiary of the Irish company LEOLABS LIMITED and the British company LEOLABS SPACE HOLDINGS LIMITED, remains—for the third consecutive year—more than a thorn in Gustavo Melella's side. And although after long months of scandal, he reluctantly revoked the permits he had granted, the slowness, the lack of credible responses, and above all, the lack of transparency, left the Tierra del Fuego government at a point of no return.

After vehemently denying it, Melella had to admit that the radar technology is capable of military use and that LeoLabs Argentina SRL has ties to capital in the United Kingdom, a country with which Argentina has a sovereignty dispute over the Malvina Islands. An archipelago belonging to the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands, which Great Britain has usurped since 1833.

However, the controversy intensified in mid-2023, when LeoLabs signed a strategic agreement with the UK Ministry of Defense. This agreement granted the British military access to all information collected by the company's radars worldwide.

Pressure from Washington

Although the national government has not given concrete signs of wanting to reactivate the radar, government sources point to a possible fear that a rejection of the US requests could create obstacles in the purchase of military equipment that Luis Petri's ministry has begun to close, such as the Stryker armored vehicles .

Furthermore, the request for a submarine base in Ushuaia, which Holsey also requested during his first visit of the year, has generated strong opposition in Tierra del Fuego province. Local authorities believe this base would be part of a broader US plan to consolidate its military presence in strategic areas such as the South Atlantic and Antarctica.