Operation Condor
Operation Condor (Portuguese: Operação Condor; Spanish: Operación Cóndor) was a United States-backed campaign of political repression and state terrorism, involving intelligence operations, CIA-backed coups, as well as assassinations of left-wing sympathizers, liberals and democrats and their families in South America which formally existed from 1975 to 1983. Operation Condor was officially and formally implemented in November 1975 by the right-wing dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America.
| Operation Condor | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Cold War | |
Main active members (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay) Sporadic member (Peru) Collaborator and financier (United States) | |
| Type | Covert operation |
| Location | |
| Planned by | |
| Commanded by | |
| Target | Democratic governments and political parties, unions, student organizations, journalists, artists, teachers, intellectuals, opponents to the military juntas and left-wing sympathizers (including socialists, peronists, anarchists and communists) |
| Date | 1975–1983 |
| Executed by | Intelligence agencies of respective participating countries |
| Outcome | Concluded after the fall of the Argentinean military junta |
| Casualties | 60,000–80,000 suspected leftist sympathizers killed 400–500 killed in cross-border operations 400,000+ political prisoners |
Due to its clandestine nature, the precise number of deaths directly attributable to Operation Condor is highly disputed. Some estimates are that at least 60,000 deaths can be attributed to Condor, with up to 30,000 of these in Argentina. The Archives of Terror list 50,000 killed, 30,000 disappeared and 400,000 imprisoned. Additionally, American political scientist J. Patrice McSherry gives a figure of at least 402 killed in Condor operations which crossed national borders in a 2002 source, and mentions in a 2009 source that of those who "had gone into exile" and were "kidnapped, tortured and killed in allied countries or illegally transferred to their home countries to be executed ... hundreds, or thousands, of such persons – the number still has not been finally determined – were abducted, tortured, and murdered in Condor operations." Victims included dissidents and leftists, union and peasant leaders, priests, monks and nuns, students and teachers, intellectuals, and suspected guerrillas.
Although it was described by the CIA as "a cooperative effort by the intelligence/security services of several South American countries to combat terrorism and subversion", combatting guerrillas was used as a pretext for its existence, as guerrillas were not substantial enough in numbers to control territory, gain material support by any foreign power, or otherwise threaten national security. Condor's initial members were the governments of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia; Brazil signed the agreement later on. Peru later joined the operation in a more peripheral role. The United States government provided planning, coordinating, training on torture, and technical support and supplied military aid to the juntas during the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations. Such support was at times routed through the CIA. However, a letter which was written by renowned DINA assassin Michael Townley in 1976 noted the existence of a network of individual Southern Cone secret polices known as Red Condor.
With tensions between Chile and Argentina rising and Argentina severely weakened as a result of the loss in Falklands War to the British military, the Argentinean junta fell in 1983, which in turn led to more South American dictatorships falling. The fall of the Argentinean junta has been regarded as marking in the end of Operation Condor.