Pressure from the U.S. Southern Command on Javier Milei 's government to reactivate the controversial LeoLabs radar in Tolhuin, Tierra del Fuego , has just taken institutional form .

Just days after the crude media operation orchestrated by the newspaperLa Nación , the Chief of Cabinet of Ministers issued Resolution 151/2025 , a measure that, under the pretext of "strengthening sovereignty" , appears designed to pave the way for the legalization of the dangerous facility.

The Resolution, published this Tuesday, October 21, 2025, instructs all competent jurisdictions to require the prior intervention and opinion of the Ministry of Defense before granting any permit for the installation of aerospace observation radars and similar systems.

While the text appeals to National Defense Law No. 23,554 and the need to protect cyberspace and outer space from threats, its application to the LeoLabs case is, at the very least, a move of dubious legality and transparency .

The double game of Resolution 151/2025

The measure has two direct interpretations that raise alarm bells:

1.     Protecting Yourself and Avoiding the Scandal of the Previous Administration: The Chief of Staff's Office is seeking to correct the glaring error committed by Alberto Fernández 's administration, whose Undersecretariat of Telecommunications granted the temporary permit to LeoLabs without first consulting the Ministry of Defense or the Foreign Ministry. By imposing mandatory intervention by the Ministry of Defense, the Milei administration is protecting itself from future controversies.

2.     Seeking Technical Overturn and Illegal Reactivation: The most dangerous point is the attempt to circumvent the devastating warnings that the Ministry of Defense itself formulated in August 2023. The report at that time, prepared by the scientific and military elite (CONAE, INVAP), described the radar as "dual use" , with the capacity to track hypersonic missiles and military satellites, declaring the installation "incompatible with the National Defense Policy Directive" .

 The current resolution appears to be an attempt to obtain new technical reports that, under political pressure, could contradict the original ruling and provide a legal basis for reactivating the radar, which the Southern Command, serving the Trump administration , has explicitly demanded.

Leolabs' military alliance with Great Britain is tested

Any attempt by the libertarian government to "whitewash" Tolhuin's radar collides with an uncomfortable reality: LeoLabs Inc. has formalized a strategic alliance with the UK Ministry of Defense . This agreement, revealed in July 2024, commits the company to providing tracking and monitoring services to the UK Space Command's Project Tyche , part of a $1 billion program to establish a constellation of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites.

This British agreement unambiguously ratifies the dual-function (scientific and military) capability of LeoLabs stations, including the one installed at Estancia El Relincho in Tierra del Fuego, with the initial complicity of Gustavo Melella 's government. Milei's resolution attempts, through administrative channels, to refute what the company itself has confirmed with the main illegal occupant of the Malvina Islands.

Sovereignty under threat

The uncertain path opened by Resolution 151/2025 is yet another link in the chain of concessions to the US that compromise Argentine sovereignty. The Milei administration has already authorized, through an unconstitutional decree and bypassing Congress, the conduct of US military exercises at the Navy's three main naval bases (Mar del Plata, Puerto Belgrano, and Ushuaia), allocating millions for this activity.

The reactivation of the Anglo-American spy radar in Tierra del Fuego, a stone's throw from the Malvinas and Antarctica, would be the ultimate expression of the libertarian government's political, economic, and financial vulnerability .

The stigma of the Melella administration, which enabled the radar, and the inaction of Alberto Fernández's government, which failed to order its disarmament, leave a historic decision on a plate that, if implemented, would confirm the handover of a strategic territory to foreign interests, for the sole purpose of political survival. The Resolution does not put an end to it, but rather opens a dangerous and critical door for the future of National Defense.