History > Cold War > 1970s-1980s > South America

Operation Condor

Argentine special forces in operation in Buenos Aires in 1982.

Photograph: Daniel García/AFP/Getty Images

Operation Condor:

the cold war conspiracy that terrorised South America

During the 1970s and 80s,

eight US-backed military dictatorships jointly plotted

the cross-border kidnap, torture, rape and murder

of hundreds of their political opponents.

Now some of the perpetrators are finally facing justice.

G

Thu 3 Sep 2020    06.00 BST

Last modified on Fri 18 Sep 2020    12.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/
operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america

1970s - early 1980s

Latin America

Operation Condor

United States-backed campaign

of political repression and state terror

involving intelligence operations

and assassination of opponents,

officially and formally implemented

in November 1975

by the right-wing dictatorships

of the Southern Cone

of South America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor - December 1, 2020

In 1975,

six South American

military dictatorships

conspired to concoct

a secret plan to eliminate

their left-wing opponents.

Not only would the intelligence services

of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,

Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay

trade information with each other

and kidnap, disappear and kill

their own domestic foes,

they would also cooperate

in identifying and killing exiles

from partner countries

who had taken refuge elsewhere.

By the time Operation Condor

ended in the early 1980s,

as many as 60,000 people

may have been killed.

Precise numbers

are hard to come by,

because of

the clandestine undertaking,

and in the years since,

political amnesties,

the destruction or decay

of public records

and the reluctance of survivors

to revisit the trauma

of their imprisonment and torture

have impeded the compilation

of a definitive history.

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/
exposing-the-legacy-of-operation-condor/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/11/
operation-condor-cia-latin-america-repression-torture - 30 November 2020

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/09/
orlando-letelier-murder-chile-allende-pinochet-washington-dc  - 21 September 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/sep/18/
operation-condor-the-cold-war-conspiracy-that-terrorised-south-america-podcast

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/sep/03/
operation-condor-the-illegal-state-network-that-terrorised-south-america

https://podcasts.apple.com/fi/podcast/
operation-condor-cold-war-conspiracy-that-terrorised/id587347784?i=1000491678302 - 2020

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/08/
italian-court-jails-24-over-south-american-operation-condor

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/15/
operation-condor-european-spies-dictators-cia-documents

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/
world/americas/argentina-dictatorship-cia-documents.html

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/09/
orlando-letelier-pinochet-nixon-kissinger - 21 September 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jul/07/
operation-condor-south-america-joao-pina-photographer-in-pictures

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/
world/americas/argentine-court-confirms-a-deadly-legacy-of-dictatorships.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/28/
479824880/argentinas-last-dictator-sentenced-to-20-years-in-prison-for-cross-border-conspi

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36403909 - 28 May 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/27/
argentinas-last-military-dictator-jailed-over-role-in-operation-condor

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/
exposing-the-legacy-of-operation-condor/

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2013/06/11/
190329906/100-words-on-the-shadows-of-the-disappeared

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/
showcase-167/

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112460666 - 2 September 2009

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1672788 - 12 February 2004

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/23/
world/latin-death-squads-and-the-us-a-new-disclosure.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/06/
world/new-files-tie-us-to-deaths-of-latin-leftists-in-1970-s.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/14/
world/documents-shed-light-on-assassination-of-chilean-in-us.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/09/
world/brazil-opens-files-on-region-s-abuses-in-age-of-dictators.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/14/
world/bolivian-s-dark-past-starts-to-catch-up-with-him.html

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Cold War / холодная война