Operation Condor: United States foreign policy and Latin American military regimes

Operation Condor is considered to be one of the most important actions directed towards the subversive forces in Latin America. A plan which took place during the Cold War, more precisely in 1975 aimed at eliminating the opposition of Latin American dictators from power. However, the leaders of the countries involved soon came to be associated with a circle of death, taking into account the way in which they acted against the so called resistance, and the results their actions had on the population.

The Operation Condor "represented a striking new level of coordinated repression among the anticommunist militaries in the region, and its existence was suspected, but undocumented, until fairly recently. Condor enabled the Latin American military states to share intelligence and to hunt down, seize, and execute political opponents in combined operations across borders. Refugees fleeing military coups and repression in their own countries who sought safe havens in neighboring countries were "disappeared" in combined transnational operations" (Mcsherry, 1999) the historical background of the operations was thus the Cold War and it represented one of the traditional means through which authority could be expressed in the region.

The operations included several aspects and set in motion all the state apparatus in the countries involved. In this sense, "Operation Condor was a secret intelligence and operations system created in the 1970s through which the South American military regimes coordinated intelligence information and seized, tortured, and executed political opponents in combined cross-border operations. Condor's key members were Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil, later joined by Ecuador and Peru. In Condor operations, combined military and paramilitary commandos "disappeared refugees who had fled coups and repression their own countries and subjected them to barbaric tortures and death. Security forces in the region classified and targeted persons on the basis of their political ideas rather than illegal acts. The regimes hunted down dissidents and leftists, union and peasant leaders, priests and nuns, intellectuals, students, and teachers as well as suspected guerrilla" (McSherry, 2002). This particular aspect is important because it underlines the actual extent of the measures taken in order to suppress the opposition forces and the elements which tried to interfere in the authoritarian regimes in Latin America. The means used to deal with these subversive forces were traditional for the communist regime as well. In this sense, the Stalinist regime applied the same techniques during the Great Purges of the late 30s.

The operation was conducted in such a manner as to include political leaders as well as regular people. Thus, foreign ministers, political leaders, important public figures who voiced their concerns against the regime of Allende, of the Argentinean regime, as well of the entire political spectrum in the countries which underwent this operation. At the same time though, the common people were also targeted. Thus "estimates say some 13,000 people died in the 1976-83 "dirty war" (Gotkine, 2004). The atrocities committed included kidnappings of children, of pregnant women, as well as small babies.

The tragedies of the families involved made the subject of several films. However, one of the most interesting on this theme is Cautiva, a 2004 foreign film which depicts the drama of a young girl whose destiny is affected by the actions of the Condor Operation. However, in fact, the story represents a symbolic image of the way in which Argentine manages to cope with its communist and totalitarian past. The story revolves around a fifteen-year-old teenager who discovers that the persons she has been living with her entire life are her adoptive family. More importantly however is the fact that the government is the element which allows her to discover that, by matching her blood tests with that of her real parents. In real life Argentina, such stories are becoming more and more often due in part to the official desire of the government to restore negative effects of the Condor Operation. Still, taking into account the fact that little has been actually achieved in the years since the massive killings took place, it is rather hard to believe that the stories which have unfolded since the middle of the 70s will be given a happy end.