Diego Felipe Medus

Diego Felipe Medús served in the Argentine embassies in Paraguay and Peru during Felipe Ricardo Yofre’s assignments there in 1956–60. He later worked under Carlos Manuel Muñiz in Washington in 1971–73. The American diplomatic roster records him as minister-counsellor and chargé d’affaires in May 1973. By early 1976 he headed the foreign ministry’s North American department. ^{1, 2}

In a cable dated 16 February 1976, Ambassador Robert Hill reported on a conversation with Medús three days earlier, before the military coup. Hill said that Medús had been asked by a military planning group to study how a future government could avoid the human rights disputes Chile and Uruguay had encountered with Washington. According to Hill, Medús warned that executions would create problems; the officers replied that some would probably be required in their intended campaign against terrorism and wanted advice on limiting the resulting difficulties with the United States. ³

Medús continued to analyze the connection between human rights and American support after the coup. In an August 1976 foreign ministry report quoted in a later documentary study, he argued that an economic program compatible with American preferences could attract assistance, but that Washington was beginning to condition that assistance on Argentina’s human rights record. ⁴