Manuel Malbrán

Manuel Esteban Malbrán was a lawyer and career diplomat. He graduated in law in 1897, worked in Estanislao Zeballos’s practice, and served as legal adviser to the national public health bureau before entering diplomacy in 1909. After Lisbon and Washington, he represented Argentina in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, and Chile. He became ambassador to the United States in September 1928, left that November, and returned with new credentials on 21 November 1930. In June 1931, his Pan American Union colleagues held a farewell luncheon before his transfer to London. ^{3, 4}

During his Washington mission, Malbrán pressed the case for allowing imports of Patagonian mutton. He argued that Patagonia could be treated as a distinct, disease free region rather than excluded under restrictions applying elsewhere in Argentina. His successor Felipe Espil continued the argument. ¹

Malbrán's later service in Italy confronted the persecution of Jews under Fascism. He reported the discrimination to Buenos Aires and repeatedly requested authority to protect the property of Argentine Jews after the Foreign Ministry initially declined to intervene. According to research by Daniel Feierstein and Miguel Galante, he eventually received limited protective powers. ²