UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 Y 7er 71 N9 Potre„ IMO '7 73 RELEASE IN FULL HA EYES ONLY WORKING TAPE — 3 — SIDE A SIDE B A PROJECT S U S D F STATE Mappret P G Release ' Deny Exemption s Declassify In Pait In Fu gS Elden as_ Do de to Da Declassify on Reason Department of State A G1S IPS SRP Ch e to Declassify Release Excise Deny 425x Exernptions b E O 13526 Declassify after With concurrence of not obt obtained 5--01— 6 Date IPS by A rr HA EYES ONLY REVIEW AUTHORITY Marvin Russell Senior Reviewer Lot 81D208 Box 4963 2 12 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY WORKING TAPE - 3 SIDE A Dear Michele Patt and Mark There is so much information to get up to you I am taking advantage of this electronic means to conduct a one way stariler telephone call between us between vacation and throwing my out of joint through a faulty lifting of a heavy trunk I have only been in the office a couple of weeks this year Things unfortunately seem to be slipping very badly on all fronts and I wanted to send you a tape to give you my personal veiw of the situation here in Argentina Here is a menu of the things on the tape I am going to talk rather quickly because your time is I know is limited to listen First subject will be the situation in Argentina situation in the Embassy Second subject will be the Third I'll talk about reporting problems that we are having here The situation in Argentina has undergone some important changes in the last two months Patt we fully entered into what you called stage two of our easy and cosmetic actions by the government of Argentina The removal at Cbristmas time from the pan of 387 political prisoners was step one followed by the publication of course of the 3 600 or so persons still being held under the pkn In addition we have been receiving very strong signals that the tuonta is considering the U S „ high interest cases we expect Alejandro Deutsch who CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY 2 everybody agrees is as clean as a hounds tooth to be released shortly The Deutsch girl as well as the Vogler girl as well as Timerman are much harder cases There has been no movement on the difficult issues of the disappeared and calling halt to-what call in-my-discussions with the Argentine Times of midnight operations It'ls - obviously clear that the government has targeted soft targets - marxists and relatives of terrorists in its latest stage Most iimportantly thegovernment is beginning to ask us for recognition of the things that they have done with respect to the Ekn prisoners4h e playing their trumps and they want something back for it Both the Navy and the Foreign Ministry in concerted efforts called me in during the week before the IFI loan decision was made in the Christopher Committee and pleaded that if there was to be further liberation in Argentina they had to be able to show that their previous moves had been recognized by the United States Government The_next range of developments is the increasing deSperatiOn-of Massera as he faces retirement probably rn-September of thisfyear toA-dislodge VAdella from his position as Commander in'Chief of the Army Massera when he is not making speeches attacking the Chileans regarding the Beagle Channel has been telling his visitors that the Argentine human rights record is terrible that the CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY 3 Army is the blame and that this is a serious international and domestic political consideration The fact that Massera is making these noises for his own political purposes should not lead us to overly discount them Massera is one of the few political animals in this country he evidently has taken a pulse reading and sees that human rights is an issue which is important for him to be on the right side of InLtodayls paper former President froi Dieze in a statement marking the anniversary of his government being elected into power a number of years ago issued a-statement in which he says that the-respect for human rights is something which the Argentine citizens can expect These are straws in the wind but they are important The legitimation of criticism of this government human rights record by its own people not just the permanent assembly not just _byAmbassador _Castro yatt Derian or Secretary Vance on a visit is realiy the key to any substantial progress We're seeing the first few pieces of evidence that may repeat may be occurring The French have been the major battler on human rightg_ip_tAe_lapt_two months The disappearance of the nuns tile total unsatisfactory efforts by the government of Argentina to recover them the phony Montonero cover up story the obvious envolvement of the first Corp in the operation lead to an extermely bitter exchange of notes between Disgard and the CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY cancellation of training for Argentine_ soliders 4 at- the senior French military academies should We reinember that only the French and the Americans have military groups in Argentina The next step was the Paris bishops refusal to allow the Argentine Embassy to conduct a special memorial mass for San Marti4 the George Washington of this country which has brought enunication and probably lies behind your dear friend Captain Al4irOzquick trip to Paris to try to repair Argentine negative image Minister Sarjene-responded Today in his own way by removing the French language from the curriculm of all the schools in Buenos Aires Province putting 600 French teachers out of work Mean_while the more constructive manner the French have given informal refuge to an Argentine citizen in their Embassy while they make arrangements for her to leave the country was released after serving his jail sentence La Plata Her husband from and thendisappeared along with three other released prisoners two weeks ago trying to get her out The French are The Ministry of Interior suggested that she needed special protection The Ministry of Interior Harguindeguy has also indicated a French Priest and a French nun as being individuals who are in trouble and the French Embassy has made arrangements for them to return to Europe The European Community Ambassadors here have prepared a message which we have not seen the text of yet for a EC9 demarSh- to the Argentine governments on the CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY human rights situation I believe the message will 5 probably focus on the disappearance of their nationals Small amount of press play here from Europe that their consideration both in Franc6 and in Holland'having their world cup football teams withdraw has raised a number of eyebrows in Argentina This would be an absolute body blow to the Argentine pride if there was Wact of withdrawal powever competitive sports being what they are tespecially the world cup which is much bigger for the rest of the world than the Olympics there seems to be little chance of this withdrawal ever taking place Ai'right that'S-a tmt7-shel1 of- what's going on in the country trump cards The Argentine Government is playing itS asking us for recognition that it's doing some good things It is trying to get its repressive actions under better military control It is retargetting these actions towards softer targets intellectual subversion as tiwPresident Videlia says guilty of bad thoughts Fhe situation in the Embassy is perceptively --worsening There is a growing recognition here that the i Embassy hag little or no influence on policy decisions r made in Washington The Embassy is convinced that it must play an important role in moderating the Presidents human rights policy to avoid serious and unnecessary and unproductive ruptures in our important bilateral relations between Argentine and the United States The Embassy is oCi daily telephonic communication with the desk i of fact the Embassy is really ARA CA south 11 2 r CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY As a matter UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY Fred calls up andgives g ed the marching orders and --- c the country team response During this recent period 6 17- - in-which decisions with respect to training IFI e XM bank loans and now the E-systems have been on the plate in Washington it has been almost impossible for me to get any negative information into our reporting f kp4-0AIL The previous Embassy policy was to homogenize the bad news to mix it in with a little good and to send it up on a delayed basis in colorless confluent pros'llas now changed to a policy of just hiding the ball The only way I can get bad news out is if the Embassy believes it will appear on the wire service report or if its itsy massaged In homogenized in a monthly human rights rap up In as much as the Embassy feels that its policy recommendations have no effect the only way it can influence policy in Washington is by restricting and coloring reporting coming out of the Embassy Not only does the Embassy have little impact in its policy recommendations to Washington but the Argentine are not coming to the Embassy as their channel for important requests to Washington when there is something that has to be done still goes directly to Frank McNeil with his request one week or two weeks later the same information may be mentioned to the Ambassador by MonteOror Harguindeguy during a routine courtesy call Since the only thing the Embassy has called on to do is to report whats going on here the only way it can participate is to make sure that unsettling information CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY does not reach Washington during the heat of decision making r I'll give you some examples later on Ambassador Castro is doing a good public relations job here he is traveling aroung the country telling the Argentine3publically that they have a negative image in the world they have got to re-establish due process procedures dealing with criminals in their society etc He's up front in his public statements He is not really taking control of the Embassy he is relaxed and out of the daily Embassy operations Chaplan is still calling the shoots with the Ambassador occasionally putting an extra paragraph or an extra few words in the messages I don't think the Ambassador has drafted a single message himself since he has been at post lie is extremely concerned that the Carter human rights efforts in Latin America have led to of our relations with Chile Uruguay Brazil and soon a snapping of the rubber band with relations with Argentina to use his phrase as that this will have serious implications for President Carters re-election in 1980 As the Mexican American Latin boat in the United States which 20 million people 'has special interests in good U S relations with Latin America and they will be open to overwooing by the Republican party Personally I disagree I think the human rights position of the President that is something that can be pointed to that the United States has acted in support of the people in Latin America and although we have fallen out with a number L-----CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY of military dictatorships here the President the Democratic administration has strengthened its len with the mass of people in Latin America Any way hard to see the Latin vote in the United States voting for John ConntAly as opposed to Jimmy Carter under any circumstances Reporting The Embassy sent a report on the nuns during my absence it ended up by saying that we were puzzled We were asked just before the IFI Christopher Committee vote to send in a balance sheet of human rights activities I presented a full description of what had happened to the nuns This was voted down by the country team as being mere speculation and the Embassy- once again stated-that we continued to be puzzled by the disappearance of the nuns We know what happened to the nuns November and early December the mothers In late There was a pause on the tape then it began again with the following In early December a group of the mothers lead by the now disappeared Mrs Devasente developed an action program to bring increasing pressure on vide104a to live up to his promises regarding peace by Christmas They planite to stage a major demonstration in the plaza on the 15th of December bringing in mothers of disappeared children from all over the country This was to be pro- ceeded on December 10th by a full page advertisement in CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 9 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY La licion signed by 4rthousands mothers of disappeared personstSimi the 24th of December the mothers were fivro scheduling an all night vigil in the Plaza Deayo after midnight services to be held in the national cathedral which faces on the plaza On December 8th Ramv6 Barado who worked with a church group which very much in support of the mother very close contact here at the Embassy was picked up at his house at approximately 4 30 p m 'between 8 30 and 9 00 p m five to seven unmarked cars pulled up in front of the Santa Crutz church where money and signavAes were being collected for the advertisement to appear in the La Vacion on Saturday the 10th The police came in took away eight or nine of the organizers of the Santa Cruez referendum as well as the money and the signature lists which had collected at the church that day been That night and the following day four homes of the disappeared persons were searched by persons identifying themselves as police officials On Saturday the 10th in the morning Mrs Dev4g ente was picked up a block from her house at 8 30 a m in the morning and thrown into a Ford Falcon kicking and screaming Later the same morning a French-4 4 sister La Anee accompanied two gentlemen house and drove away with them the Sunday the llth from her Now on the following day Press received a package consisting of a letter from the sisters stating that they were being held by governmental forces opposed to Vtdellia CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY A letter on Montonero 10 stationery saying that the nuns would be free if a number of demands were met and a large 8 x 10 glossy photograph of the two nuns holding up Saturday's newspaper with a large Motonero flag in their background The-thing was so obviously contrived that even the hardcore deftenders such as Arolia could not bring themselves to suggest that the Montoneros really held the nuns first pcorp The information was disseminated by the The French protested the Argentines replied but the bottom line is that today iPLa Plaza A de Mfyo instead of between two and three hundred mothers on each Thursday afternoo9 there are forty or fifty Although the country team is puzzaled regarding the nuns disappearance based on the facts presented it is clear by of the circumstantial evidence that this is not an out of control operation There were a series of four actions the arrest of Bardo the arrest at the church follow-up searches of homes plus the capture on Saturday morning of the second French nun plus the leader of La Plaza de tyo mothers The Montoneros used polaroid cameras and do not produce 8 x 10 glossies of persons they are holding for ransom Unfortunately the Embassy official position is that the disappearance of the nuns is still inexplicable The reason it is inexplicable is because it is another concrete manifestation that the government has changed its targeting The first phase of the targeting repression in the country was of course the hardcore Montonero and CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 11 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY erwt7- terrorists they have been virtually eliminated The second phase which began some six months ago which the Embassy has still not reported on was focusing its repressive midnight operations on the marxists intellectuals subversives people who in V4delia_f definition j 43- guilty of bad thoughts ' Our files are bulging with student leaders psychologists psychiatrists member's of socialist discussions groups -ate who have disappeared Family information activites and profilecof these individuals point to the fact that they were not members of the Montonero organization nor supporters but they were advertly leftists The next phase tin which we saw in a concrete way in December during a subway strike 12 of the subway union leaders disappeared and the same month 19 leaders of the ceramic union disappeared during labor difficulties- lsfOrth of Buenos Aires luth of Buenos Aires in an automobile plant six labor shop floor grumblers received the same treatment All this is kept by an action in December in which a dozen key people in the mothers group art disappeared Argentine sources have indicated that during screening of the 225 mothers who were arrested either early November or late October in the Plaza de Coilresso traL only two of the individuals had records with the police One was Sister Altcia the French nun who had a record of subverssive activities in ' Cotentez Province due to her social welfare efforts and another woman who was a member of the Argentine League for the Rights Man which is a UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY Argentina front 12 Whati 11- bellevaizwe are sesing- is that n ering in '2 74taxdorsuag inwhach th-w forces7zafmtherrepressiblecLi-e lbeing used for regime 1n414 41 1 t#111Ce ve4-Stagentones rantlimeterrori-sts-r-stage-twO' a VeraUbliertylIre Stage-three-regime- maintenance - The of the military dictatorship here is as it has always been the economic program The country is experienceing a recession -14 zug kWe read in the papers daily of layoffs --general motors laid off 600 workers yesterday textile industry is down the tractor industry is down 1 Argentine economy is feeling P the effects of a very rigorous Chicago monftprist POZ squeeze being applied by Mart tniz D les It is a painful medicine My_real fear is that we will see increasing labor unrest in the next two or three months here in Argentina and that the repressive security forces will be directed in terms of bringing the workers back into line throUgh-a -polic5flof -disappearances-and-this will give a neW lOng term reason for the- maintenance and continuation of the governments repressive security forces The forces will change targets More efforts will be directed at subversion in labor unions subversion in education This will replace the war on terrorism Sorry to have taken so much of time in terms of talking about the nuns but its a key event UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 13 The 11109 F probleikfrwith -Denpect to fairness in reporting deals with the refusal of the Embassy to report the reaction among the human rights groupsher to the governments releasejof the names of the-Pen tanees Our reaction paragraphs which I have placed on the second and third pen release cables have been deleted in the front office Analysis of the list of persons detained under the Paveraview National' has shown that only one or tWo percent of the political priSoners are formally The permanent assembly the mothers of La Plaza de Mnyo and the have come in on several occassions to express their abject dismay over the incompleteness of the list and their fear that the government will wash itshands-of-the- entire situation after the publication of the lists 1The front — office has stated that the reactions of the human rights organizations to the pen lists was not important 1 and that if I wanted to report that I should do it in the context of a larger cable or airgram on the entire il 1 disappearance question I _ The next ball that has been hidden here is regarding intellectual subversion- I have done a number of cables which tied in reported events to targeting by the Argentine security forces of individuals for intellectual subversion going out This has been taken out of all of messages Just this week one of our military attache had one of his reports turned back by the front office UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 to UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY 14 in which one of his military contacts in the Argentine Air Force described the governments efforts at weeding out marxists and subversives The problem is that I think we have passed stage two of targeting against subversives and have now entered in stage three where labor union leadership human rights organizations and other groups are targeted not because they are either terrorists nor marxists subversives but because they are conducting activities innumerable to the interest of the state The last—little- bit- of- ball hiding is- with respect to the _L Tamman-speech The very able Argentine propaganda machinery picked up the Tadman speech and took the deckalog as it is called here with respect to limitations on our human rights policy and ran it on the front page of La Penyon a foul up on the following day with a further analytical piece The permanent assembly the mothers of the La Plaza Mmyo and the all made calls on me immediately after the Tojnan ten points were published expressing their absolute fear that the United States had changed its policy and was going to modify its human rights policy towards Argentina whiGh-4s-44e wa s - ‘ keystone to their efforts here in Argentina UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY 14 WORKING TAPE 3 - SIDE B The Embassy ccit7rrtry ttclodecis- on7t4a-t7Titwo4d not7reportthe reaction7pf7the- human - rights- groups-but would7only report iirvitcla4Iy7pxesa -rotIndup7 ment given the time and speech in La Penon he treat- Another-- buried ge-ilLiS the _fact'that'the_ human rights in Argentina_are_becomingincreasinglyr radical as the promises of the governmentfor action in the human rights area appears to be on1y _tobe cosmetio „A„The permanent assembly has proposed a„major shift in which it would no longer single out President Vfdel afor special consideratl onjn_its publications and messages but would begin a policy of considering the government has been represented by the tIqrita as a whole The assembly has seen no indication that V4de4a is in fact opposed or trying to moderate the repressive operations within the society All these little hidden balls that I have mentioned The complete nun story the local human rights r_group_reaction to the 47- ddipileils list the questionlof dešcriptionlof intellectual subversion and regime maintenance activities by the security forces as new targets the reaction to the Todman letter seem important elements that should have been at hand in Washington during considerations of policy The question is what to do The Embassy piPesees correctly that it has no influence with respect to its policy recommendations The only thing it can do is influence those recommendations by taiiored reporting We are UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 Ni UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 roNPIDENTIAL HA EYES ONLY 15 polishing up the good- news-delaying and homogenizing the bad news and we- have now come toa- pointwhere we're just not reporting certain thingš at all I had hoped that my constant pecking away at the conscience of the country team would over time produce some results I am now convinced that to a man everyone in the embassy feels that the implementation of the Presidents human rights policy towards Argentina is wrong They of course to a man would agree human rights is a terribly important part of our foreign policy and our national heritage however we should not refuse to sell sophisticated communications systems tear gas or helicopters as an expression of our concerns with the Argentine human rights situation iihat to do and when to do it I think the signal from you all as to how important and how public these kinds of 1 information inputs should be made It's not credible to send dissent cable out three times a week I-think-the options are these i 1 continue to send you every month or every couple weeks a back handle tape which would be 11 -such as this strictly for your information 2 Would be ' to send official informal letters which I would alternateq1 between sending them to Michele and Jim Bumpus with copies to- the 4 eru counselor here The pouch goes out once a week it takes four days to get there be time delay in your action There will If this information is important the problem here is I do not know when decisions are being made in Washington raplin knows UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY what the state of play is but I do not therefore when 16 something is taken out of the cable I have no way of knowing that the Christopher Committee is meeting the following day and that providing this information I could 1A upset a favorable decision 3 W01 111 fo me to try to put individal ppinionin the cable as provided for in the Secretary's message_on_reporting I think the Ambassador would really have problems with this He is not a enlightned liberal manager as a matter of fact he has expressed his real displeasure with the early E-systems cable in which I put in an Embassy minority position That was a minority of one The problem is that the earlier E-systems cable took two weeks of bloody fighting to get out of the Embassy just let all this stuff_build up and to put it together and send in a dissent cable down the line a point 4 Is to I have come to where I believe the Embassy's news management ihas crossed the boundries of professional responsibility and is now limiting and delaying information to Washington to affect policy decisions That may be the way the game is played but I have enough personal and professional concern that I strongly feel that the game should not be played that way I feel that something should be done What I don't want to do is spill alot of my blood needlessly If the Embassy reporting is credible in Washington as a major impact on policy then we need a formal Harris eye view perception through official informals through minority opinion in cables UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY If the Embassy reporting is perceived j iei lack jove credibility by your selves and by the- members- of the Christopher Committee then I can provide you personally with some information from time to time to bring you up to speed on events as I see them here in order to give you sufficient facts to work with Please-send me a letter or give me a call ny home phone is 798-3625 The last point is policy here I was some what disappointed at the decision by the Christopher Committee to support the IFI's and turn down the training I do believe that a strong case should be made for us giving the Argentines some signal to recognize th Christmas pen list and the publishing of the names of the persons ' being held under the qn We all know that what1s being done is cosmetic and its easy for the Argentines to do This does not mean that it wasn't done with some cost because of the extreme right wing reaction with in side the military who I'm sure opposed the publication of the list of all persons detained under the An However we should have given them something and what we should have given them is the training which is bilateral which is tangible and which is understandable to the average mentality of the Argentine military official Our chamjing our vote from no to abstain in the IFI is a signal which is understandable only to very sophiscated people in the foreign office and the Ministry of Finance here as well as the Presidency It's an important signal UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 18 and I am running around town telling that this was done in clear recognition of improvement that they have made in the human rights situation by releasing people being held under the pen and by publishing a list of all persons being so detained However the-IFI decision4misymerrisowma combined with the Todman speech has sent a signal to all the other embassies around town especially our friends in the community who are_just beginning to take their tentative step towards a tougher policy line towards Argentina that the U S is some how backing off If on the other hand we have provided training it would have been very quiet It would have been the kind of thing we could have given to the Argentines We could have gotten alot more mileage from the Argentines Ambassador Castro is on the war path with respect to getting training and I am sure Patt you can expect a call from him during next week when he will be there for the Latin American Ambassadors conference The next major question is Exim financing This is something that should be removed from Argentina and it should be tied to some bad actions on their part so that the rewards and punishment system_becomes clear We have gone beyond stonewalling now and I think there is a feeling by the Argentines that they are willing to play the game They believe that they can produce enough good news to keep from getting from us Unfortunately I am not UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 19 as sangui0 -' The E-systems applications has got to be disapproved That is an absolute disaster taken by itself the E-systems communications system which would link _- Provincial police to the central police computer in Buenos Aires is a neutral piece of hardware With the way this government is going it would be a powerful weapon for strengthening the hand of Argentine police forces in running operations against any groups they decided were subversives Its police equipment the United States allowing the sale to be made would have absolutely devastating effect on the human rights groups in this country I would much prefer to have us sale tear gas or twenty two caliber ammunition to the police forces than to sell this kind of technology This is one of the cases where we have the Argentines over the barrel because they have spent x million dollars installing a E-systems computer communications system in Buenos Aires Foreign equipment is not compatible with the system if they go through other options they will be faced with enormous additional expenses and bugs in terms of working it out It was interesting the message received last week from Rondon asking for the Ambassadors personal views on the B-systems application plin drafted it and the Ambassador signed it Patt and Michele I don't want to close on a down note I want to tell you that the price of beef steaks here is still $1 50 The wine is still good and Patt our pizza place is still in business and is still putting lots of delicious garlic into the pies UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 20 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY My very best regards to you all Michele let me just put a little p s and thank you very much for your good of letter regarding the visit of Herb Semmel for the Center Law and Social Policy and the International League of Human Rights I unfortunately did miss these gentlemen when they were through in Buenos Aires S n The figures that 0 received from Hargenduey are of interest and I tict appreciate those that are a little bit more detailed than what we received from before they left plin when he debriefed the group You might mention to that we have moved ahead on a few cases Judy Chavchavadze We've got about ten identified cases for right of option certificates I went and identified about a dozen cases and took them down to the consulate and we had a meeting last week We went over them and have selected eight or nine cases which has some U S interest as the first batch of cases for us to present to the Argentine Government for information The problem that we have is that in terms of giving the right of option certificates we are handing blank checks There is alot of concern within the consulate that the individuals that we will be taking are pinkos or crypto terrorists etc The problem will not be made any easier by the information which is contained in their official Argentine files We still do not know if whether the Argentines are going to clean the files up and make some judgement on them or whether they are going to give us the information that they have For example we do know that in some of the cases people who the Argentines have released UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 21 who were high interest cases for this Embassy The Argentines have told us that these people were One case I inparticular was a priest rthat he was a recruiter fdr the Montoneros and was responsible for military training for Montonero recruits and of course this information was i phony as hell in_as much as the Argentines then turned around and released the priest from the pin just before tell Christmas Please Judy that we moving ahead alA'be it slowly Your cable was of great use to usp becau se the consulate which had been demanding some signa l from Washington or a sign from God they would accep t either before moving ahead now at least have a firm cable from Washington laying out what their policy shoul d be It appears in the Embasse§ around town in the right option program the Dutch had a team here last week reviewing applications for refugee status Lz' The Canadians called me this morning asking me what are doing I will be meeting with them in the near future to discuss the right of option problem The Chakareita cemet ery story which you heard from tta has also been surfaced around in the French Embassy The French are convi nced that among that group were there nuns One police sargeant who evidently stumbled across the truck bringing 0 the cagdavap to long pause in the tape - then continues as follows field outside of on the outskirts of greater Buenos Aires Local people did not know that they UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 22 existed until an armed helicopter came down and finger printed them Another story is between 36 and 40 women who were washed ashore Amandayaho which is near a beach resort area 200 miles from Buenos Aires down the river This later appearance with information that we developed but again are unable to report from the Argentine police official who bragged to one of our Embassy officers regarding the Argentine method for disposing of bodies This is now according to the source been centralized in an operation in for all actions occuring within the fixpk-corp People r• Q kle after they have been interrogated efi-omx deemed no longer of use and a decision has been made at a senior level they should be executed The people are then being told that they are being transferred to Coraendaz Province and must receive an injection before they go for health reasons The people gracefully submit to the injection which contains curia which is a derivative of the poison used by Amazon natives in their blow guns Evidently it has the effect of contracting the muscles By receiving the dose the people very shortly there after die and one of the effects of the poison is to contract their lungs They are then placed in planes which take off at the de capitia Mayo airfield and are dropped in the mouth of the river where they sink and are quickly devoured by the fish We have gotten in touch with Mrs Lajamonavich to inform her that our UNCLASSIFIED U S Departrnent of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 17% rp-r- request before the Fazwrg% abso ✓ The Eavw 14 - -operation 23 51is ply broken down Iam dutifulIpulld mg up a record by putting in the high interest U S cases to the foreign office but I have not received any replies from the foreign office on these cases since just prior to the Vance visit to Argentina When I last queried AtIlOr regarding this he said very shortly we will have published the list of all persons being detained under the pin in Argentina We have no other prisoners therefore anyones name who is not on a pen list is not known to the government There is no need for us to reply to your requests I suggested to Jim Bumpus when he was here that if''N'eAreallyr-want-action on these cases that in addition to- our goingYthrough a ritual gesture of submitting them to the foreign office that we ask the congressional offices and the families involved to get in touch with Inter-American Human Rights Commission in Washington Now I have not seen any letters suggesting to interested parties that they approach the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission should be done However I think it If there is a policy problem in terms of the department doing that formally then I think we should make some arrangements to at least tell people or congressional staffers informally that is very advantageous route for the people to take UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 24 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY Turning to another point and thats the number of disappeared We have gotten a new update from 4 source within the Ministry of-the Interior that there are seven thousands registered persons with the missing perSons office in - the Ministry of the Interior Now there are two adjustments that have to be made to that number First some-of the persons registered as being disappeared have in fact- reappeared onthe We know weekly pen list we see one or two persons who have been disappeared to this EmbassY surfacing Inaddition we know that the permanent assembly record which are the largest in the country They have approximately 2 400 disappearances listed in their office ' By contrast the Embassy has just a little under 800 1 The thousand a group has a bit over a I think the hardest number that we can look at is the Ministry of the Interior figure which unfortunately we don't have from Harguindeguy but we a have only from confidential source that we have to protect But there are over 7 000 reported disappearances to the Ministry so if we adjust a small percentage of those as people who have returned and then multiplythat number by some factor of people whose children have disappeared but have not reported them to the Ministry of the Interior I think probably most cases in Buenos Aires Province especially in the metropolitan area due in fact report their childrens disappearances to the Ministry of the Interior However UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 25 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY it can only be done in the capitol it cannot be done on a regional basis Consequently if someone is missing it means a special trip to Buenos Aires in order to make the registration I do not think that is done in the majority of the cases there There has been some progress we do see a slow down in the number of cases reported to the Embassy of disappearances This also reflecting the statistics of other organizations It is still a significant number of disappearances We have between 20 and 30 a month reported to this Embassy I would imagine that we have to multiply that by a factor of two three four five to ten or something like that The number of people who will actually come to the American Embassy to report a disappearance must be fairly small However it does speak well as an indication that our policy is really understood and known to the population here in Argentina that we do get the parents of 30 disappeared children who come to the United States Embassy each month asking for help seeing almost all of them I'm Everyone is received we are answering all the letters to President Carter to the Ambassador to Patt letters I--'personally sign off on the We're being as responsive as we can in a public relations Since here that's easily done it just takes a lot of time but what we're not getting with respect to the disappeared is any signal of interest on behalf of the Argentine Government Well I could CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017 CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY 26 ramble on for considerably longer but I want to get this into the pouch to you today Michele if you get a chance and I realize that you are up to your ears in alligators I would greatly appreciate a quick tape from you kind of filling me in on what is going on in Washington what the state of play is for human rights in ARA imparticular over the next year on this would be most welcomed Your thoughts A11 the best and do take care of yourself and we'll look forward to see you in the not too distant future CONFIDENTIAL - HA EYES ONLY UNCLASSIFIED U S Department of State Case No 0-2016-16244 Doc No C06302459 Date 04 18 2017                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu