Yesterday, Chief of Cabinet of Ministers Guillermo Francos gave his management report to the Senator. For eight hours he addressed key issues of government policies implemented in strategic areas such as economy, security and health, and answered about 1,000 questions posed by the senators. Among them, about the British and Irish capital radar installed by Leolabs Argentina SRL on the large island of Tierra del Fuego.
In this regard, the Senator for Tierra del Fuego, Pablo Blanco , distributed to the press fragments of this presentation, where Francos, answering questions asked by the parliamentarian from Tierra del Fuego, declared that he had met with the people from Leolabs and was waiting for a report from the Ministry of Defense, to decide whether the Ministry in his charge, as authorities in matters of telecommunications, authorizes or not the continuation of the operation of the radar in the vicinity of the town of Tolhuin.
This is the dialogue held between the Senator from Tierra del Fuego and the Chief of Staff of the Nation:
Pablo Blanco: Unfortunately, from your statements it appears to me that there is little hope that this radar will be dismantled and you deny the dual possibility of scientific and military use.
Guillermo Francos: The Leolabs radar. Well, I have a view that may not coincide with yours, because I was meeting with the people at LEOLABS, paying attention to this somewhat anomalous situation, if you will, because it was an authorized installation and then, it was unauthorized.
I asked for technical reports because I understand that your assessment is related to the possibility of using this radar in some connection with the conflict we have over sovereignty over the Malvinas. And in reality this radar, according to the explanations I have received so far and I hope they will soon be reflected in a report, is that this is not really a radar but an observer of the circulation, not only satellite but of space debris. And I saw in one, no, it was not real. I mean, no, because I understand that it is not currently working. You tell me that it is, I understand from what the people from this company told me, that in fact it is not an English company, it is an American company with some minority English participation; but I understand that it is not working, but they did show me, they gave me a demonstration of how it works; and in fact it sees nothing but space. It has no possibility of seeing horizontally, of analyzing horizontally. And I believe that Argentina can also get a lot of benefit from the use, from being able to use this observer for the benefit of the country. So, I will wait for the final report and see what resolution is taken before I can fully answer your question. But you should know that I was involved in the matter, I asked, I found out, I spoke with the Ministry of Defense about the matter, I am involved in the matter.
