• uu SUJ ect Your conversations with Ambassadors Hill and Siracusa and other notes 1 Conversa tion wi th Ambassador Hill at Embassy Res idence on March 28 The Ambassador discussed Henry Kissinger's role in the Argentine human rights situation Hill said that he had made arrangements seven t i mes for a Kissinger visit to Argentina Each time the Secretary cancelled Finally Kissinger decided to go to the OAS meeting in Santiago in June 1976 In the middle of the meetings the Secretary wanted to visi t Buenos Aires This time the Argentines refused because they did not wan t to interrupt OAS activities being held i n a neighbor ing sta t e Kiss inger •• and Poreign Minister Guzzetti The Argentines were very worried that Kissinger • • -i • 3' • to meet in Santiago • aqr ed would lecture to them on human rights Guzzetti and Kissinger •• had a very long breakfast but the Secretary did not raise the subject Finally Guzzetti did Kissinger asked how l ong will it take you the Argentines to clean up th probl e m Guzzetti replied tha t it wo uld be done by the end of the year Kissinger approved In other words Ambassador Hill explained Kiss i nger gave the Argentines the green light Within two weeks after • • the June meeting Juan de Onis of the Times knew what Kissinger said Onis asked the Arr assador for confirmation The Ambassador could not reply because no one informed the Embassy of Kissinger's statements Later about August the Ambassador discussed the matter personall y with Kissinger on the way back to Washington from a Bohemian Gro¢ve meeting in San Francisco Kissinger confirmed the Guzzetti conversation Hill said that the Secretary felt that Ford wo uld win the election Hill disagreed In any case the Secretary wanted Argentina to finish its ter rorist problem before year end - before Congress reconvened n January 1977 In September Hill prepared an eyes onl y memora ndum for the Secretary urging that the u s vote against an IDB loan on Harkin grounds Bill felt that he would strengthen his hand in dealing with the Argentines The memo was ' ' · given to Assistant Secretary Shlaudeman The latter asked the Ambassador personally if Hill really wanted to asend the memo to the Secretary who had already decided to vote for the loan Shlaudeman suggested that the Secretary mi g h t fire Hill Hill told Shlaudeman to send the memo Hill' s IDB memo was ignored aaa we voted for the l oan warning the Argentines however that we might not be able to support future Argentine projects i n the IDB unless the human rights picture changes Hill returned to Argentina around earl y September ' The Argentine p ress had been saved for him and he s fted - 3- through stacks of newspapers He saw that the t errorist death toll had climbed steeply The Ambassador said t hat he wondered - although he had no proof - whether the Argentine government w s not trying to solve i ts terrorist problem before the end of the year Ambassador Hill said that he would tell all of this to the Congress if he were put on the stand under oath I'm not going to lie the Ambassador declared He commented that the Argentine government now knows clearly where we stand on human rights They did not before and Hill said he wanted us to know this from the outset • • 2 Country Team Briefing at Amembassy Buenos Aires on I · March 29 Tony Freeman Political Officer stated that • ' t · • · • their failure from 1966-73 grated on the Argentine military They were spat upon when they left power in 1973 They did not want power again The civilianp poli t icians were sitting and diddl ing in Congress They knew a coup was coming and sought to get pay advances John Amott Economic Counselor said that money has not come back to Argentina because of terrorist problem Patt Derian commented that there is a real danger that every IFI bill will have a human rights rider The American people have not yet decided on how best to conduct human rights effort There is a common perception tha t pol icy makes it possible for dictatorships to u s opp saress - 4- people I n my s e ve n weeks Ms De rian c on t i nued I don' t f ind t hat puni tive steps are e f fective If I F£ amendments pass woul d chaos follow in Argentina The Ambassador replied yes Ms Derian t hen inquired about the wage policy Arnott responded t hat the whole thing wi l l sol ve itself in 8 or 9 months In the field of trade we will lose out to Europe and J apan if Eximbank does not open up The Ambassa dor interjected that the poor cannot tighten their belts any further He also mentioned t hat Occidental Petroleum is planni ng to invest $100 million and St Joe Minerals is trying to put together a $1 billion copper project Ms Derian wondered how long wi l l people be patient with the government Tony Freeman said that ' ' ' ' - •·' 20% or more of the population would have to be tortured to excite the people He noted that the terrorists are middle class The terrorists have not had great success mobilize because they cannot XiK• the poor - if you can find poor people Ms Derian askee-if- a commented that she had not seen beggar s in the street Mr Freeman replied that they are locked up He added that the guerril las did find some poor in Tucuman Province scene of the ERP insurgency • Someone commented that the Argentine government did not react strongly agains t the u s military aid reduc t ion because the military do not want to ral l y the popul ation demagogicall y against the U S Col Coughli n Army Attache s tated t ha t t here s - - - no d ivision among the mili tary i n terms of t hei r determination to wage war on terrorism subversives Some l essons had been learned f rom the Brazilians in the i r fight against urban terrorism Almost no lessons were l earned from Chile and few from Uruguay The Argentine military are mainly on their own There is loose command control and responsibili t y is· decentralized Abuses come because you don't have good tight control But the military are beginning to tighten control partially because of pressure Ms Derian said that every level must understand that human rights is a basic tenet Argentina was not whacked to balance the Soviets National val ues are in the national interest Some feel that we have tended to send a double message e g et does not apply to hhe military ••• or business It does We told Argentina that we needed postponement of an IBRD loan because of Congress that is wrong Jim Buchanan INR on TDY ina Argentina noted that the terrorists have won in a sense because institutions have been destroyed and hatreds will last for years Where do terrorists get equipment They were first financed by ransoms There is an international connection They also manufacture their own It is hard to know where money is now coming from Kidnappings are hushed Yvonne Thayer Political Officer reported that the judicial process broke down The Catholic Church has given the Argentine government a May deadline for i mprovement Argentines are approaching the Embassy Other embassi es are very careful about getting involved with Argentine citizens Consul General George Huey said that 28 Americans suffered a r rest presumably in 1976 There were 16 mino r arrests 6 document checks and 10 Children of God-vo luntary departures and 12 serious arrests Three were held on criminal charges 2 drugs and 1 counterfeiter Nine were subversive charges 1 American was killed Of the Nine 8 were women and 6 claimed torture There are only two Americans in jail at present the Panero sisters They are dua l Argentine-American nationals The sister being held at Vi lla Devoto Buenos Aires has been visited by the Embassy the one in Cordoba E still incommuiicado They were detained in August 1976 and are age 24 and 26 Mr Villalobos discussed the refugee parole · program There have been 280 applicants 260 Chileans and 20 Uruguayans 48 cases have been submitted to D HA for approyal 80 are pending clearances Sponsors are now ready to take the first cases 3 Embassy Briefing by Ms Derian on March 29 The following topics were touched on during the question and answer session discredited Argentines who testified before Congress the sending of a double message the u s is standing alone the u s h as abandoned Argentina fighting Marxism will our allies deny equi pment to Argentina which the u s refuses to provide what is the effect of human rights on IFis and the ne ed for a h uman ri g hts yardstick I did no t t ake more extensive notes at the briefing I wish I hasd 4 Paeal Nuncio He said that there are twe l ve priests in jail 7 were involved in terrorism or subversion He a l so noted that when the military came to power the ERP was richer than the state the treasury 5 Meeting wi th American businessmen on March 30 Mr Heap of Sterling Drug d scribed the labor situation at one of his plants which employs 580 workers Management had decided to rotate coffee breaks so that production I would rise 4% In return the workers were offered a 10% wage hike The union was amenable but explained that there was a real problem at the plant Management then tried to explain its proposal to the workers The union ·· ' delegate could not make himself heard at a meeting which I was disrupted 19 ringleaders were isolated and fired for cause Another 44 workers were suspended and 99 were given warnings A three week cooling vacation followed The workers returned to work in January 1977 and were very pleased because they were no longer intimidated Production 1s up The factory manager was frightened because retaliatory action might be taken against him None was The workers who were fired have grumbled but are free There have been no further reprisal s against them although they are watched Another businessman said that there is a good deal of plant sabotage by t he skillful use of abse nteeism aimed -8- at creating bottlenecks in key production areas 6 Meeting with Juan De Onis on April 1 De Onis reported that the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights has assembled a colle ctive petetion involving the denial of 600 writs of habeas corpus The hope is that the Supreme Court will accept the petition and name a special investigating judge As a result of the review the Assembly hopes the Court will declare that the legal system is not working or be able to come up with information on the 600 cases De Onis also recommended Hugo Gobbi who is apparently being considered for an OAS human rights • ' - J post De Onis said that Bob White of the u s delegation to the OAS knpws Gobbi who also has the respect of Ambassadors Orfila and Aj a Espil Gobbi was former Ambassador to Cairo •