3 11 77 @T o o J HClASSif Ell MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION DATE March 31 1977 TIME 17 15 - 18 25 PLACE LA OPINION ARGENTINA PROJECT S200000044 U S DEPT OF STATE A RPS IPS Margaret P Grafeld Director Release Excise Deny Exemp ion s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Declassify In Part 'X ' In Full Classify as_ l xlend _ Downgrade IO _ Dale _ _ _ Dedassifyon _ _ _ Reaaon _ _ PARTICIPANTS Mrs Patricia Derian Mr Fred Rondon Mr Jacobo Timerman Editor Publisher of LA OPINION Mr Hector Timerman youngest son 23 of Jacobo Mr Enrique Jara Managing Editor LA OPINION Mr Michael O'Brien Press Officer USIS Buenos Aires In the course of a one hour and ten minute meeting Jacobo Timerman made the following points He thanked President Carter for his human rights policy adding that the human rights issue has broken the mold that has charact rized East-West relations the cold war syndrome since World War II The U S has taken the ideological initiative In The Argentine case is atypical Chile Brazil Uruguay the civilian governments were inept but didn't violate human rights The military regimes that overthrew them did violate them In Argentina 1he civilian government was guilty of extensive human rights violations and the military government is doing no more than its ci_vilian predecessor in this field The U S should strongly defend its principles but vary its tactics according to the local situation There are three types of Argentine military officers The intelligent ones accept the reality of U S human rights policy and will try and absorb the policy and restructure Argentina's relations with the U S accordingly The fools imbeciles think that the Carter Administration and the Pentagon are separate and they are talking to the Pentagon Some even say that the U S military should get rid of Carter Many other officers feel that human rights was candidate Carter's policy and President Carter will see things differently There should be no double message IUht Pl A1ss1cPt n 11 I U 1 ' 85D366 13769 2 The subversives' greatest victory has been convincing the military that their tactics terror torture are the right ones The progressive military officers have made supersonic advances by Argentine standards in winning acceptance for greater human rights protection - They are advancing one millimeter per week If the Argentine situation keeps going as it is now we will have civil war and the Montoneros will win But if the government can defeat both the leftist-fascists and the right-wing fanatics Argentina will be an example for the world Send_us a great Ambassador He must be strong career man Again no double message Not a When queried about the advisability of applying the Harkin amendment to U S multilateral lending Mr Timerman replied that the U S must apply it to remain consistent in its human rights policy To do otherwise would only confuse human rights supporters and encourage those who question U S dedication to the cause But just casting negative vote isn't enough U S must do something positive For example establis the right of a country to appeal This would create a dialog on human rights with the offending country It is not easy to be democratic and defend human rights in Argentina today For example the Interior Ministry recently complained that LA OPINION was giving too much coverage to Habeus Corpus petitions filed with local courts Soon after Timerman rejected this complaint LA OPINION's court reporter completely vanished and has not reappeared Timerman added that he knows the government is preparing to denounce him as a communist and the voice of subversion and take some drastic action he did not specify in the next few months __ _ He concluded by observing that if he were to be killed by leftists it would merit only a small story in U S press But if right-wing para-military did him in it would be front page news for weeks The United States must denounce human rights violations on both sides to maintain credibility Many Argentines question American sincerity when it appears that the U S is mostly interested in denouncing right-wing terrorism USIS AIO M n vp q ' i l r1r rcrn • 1 1 Uri lADiJltitU -