Messed Up Details From U.S.-Backed Operation Condor: The Conspiracy To Disappear People

The United States was willing to do anything and everything to suppress communist and anti-authoritarian activities worldwide during the Cold War, including funding fascists and authoritarian regimes. In Europe, this was demonstrative in Operation Gladio, a stay-behind army. In South America, this was seen in Operation Condor.

For two decades, right-wing military dictatorships in South America propped up and funded by the United States combined their surveillance and suppression into a network of death squads. These military and paramilitary groups arrested, abducted, and abused thousands of people associated with political subversion in a transnational network. While some of these people were members of revolutionary groups actively fighting against military dictatorships, others were Indigenous people, members of unions, or radical democrats seen as a threat to the authoritarian status quo. While some managed to survive the horrific detention camps, others could not escape.

Tens of thousands of people disappeared and were murdered across eight different countries during the almost 20 years that Operation Condor operated. And while some trials have been held in countries like Chile and Italy, few who participated in Operation Condor have been held accountable. Meanwhile, the families of those who disappeared continue to grieve for their loved ones and push for accountability and justice. Here are some messed up details from the U.S.-backed Operation Condor.

The following article includes descriptions of mass torture and sexual assault.

Both the CIA and the U.S. Office of Public Safety (OPS) provided material assistance and trained officers from Operation Condor countries on torture techniques. According to "The Globalization of U.S.-Latin American Relations," the School of the Americas was where "the foundations of [Operation] Condor were laid."

The OPS supplied equipment for surveillance and trained many officers in torture and interrogation complete with a torture manual. Hugo Campos Hermida was one of the hundreds of officers who participated in Operation Condor after receiving training from the United States. An Uruguayan policeman, Campos Hermida attended the International Police Academy in Washington, D.C. on a scholarship from the State Department in 1970. Afterward, Campos Hermida went on to become a member of the paramilitary groups, also known as death squads, in Uruguay. He also later joined the death squads that operated as part of Operation Condor in Argentina.

Numerous graduates of the School of the Americas were also trained in human rights abuses, like General Hugo Banzer, who took over Bolivia and led a military dictatorship for seven years with support from the United States. In addition to funding his coup, the United States also gave Banzar military assistance during the first year of his dictatorship, at least.

The estimates of exactly how many people disappeared due to Operation Condor varies, but all of the estimates are staggering. In Argentina alone, it's estimated that roughly 30,000 people disappeared between 1976 and 1983. In addition to targeting leftists and people associated with anti-authoritarian dissidents, the Argentinian dictatorship also targeted Jewish people for arrest and disappearance.

In Brazil, estimates are even higher, with 60,000 people thought to have disappeared, although the exact numbers are unknown. But what is known is that many Brazilian officers were trained in "enhanced interrogation techniques and psychological warfare operations" in London, according to Javier A. Galván's "Modern Brazil."

Disappearances were also used as a form of psychological torture against families, with officers calling "the family members so they could hear the prisoners screaming, crying, and begging for mercy," per "Latin American Dictators of the 20th Century" also by Galván. Many of the families whose loved ones disappeared during Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda's dictatorship in Paraguay still don't know what happened to their loved ones almost half a century later. Even the burial spots of people who disappeared are unknown, and, although the victims' families continue to push for transparency, governments have instead given at least partial immunity to those who participated in Operation Condor.

Many people died during the torturous interrogations — some by accident, and others intentionally. But either way, something had to be done with the thousands of dead bodies. In some places, like Chile, the bodies were dumped into mass graves. The Atacama Desert is filled with the remains of thousands of people, ranging from student activists to indigenous elders.

Other countries, like Argentina and Uruguay, were dumping the bodies of thousands of dissidents into waterways like rivers and oceans. In "The Image of the River in Latin/o American Literature" the authors report that as early as 1977, some of these bodies were washing up on beaches. In Argentina, some people were dropped into the Atlantic Ocean by planes while they were still alive. The New York Times reports that Argentinian Navy commander Adolfo Francisco Scilingo admitted to participating in at least two "death flights," in which after being abducted and tortured, people would be sedated and then pushed out of a plane while it flew over the Atlantic Ocean — unconscious but alive.

Typically, human bodies that are dumped in water will eventually resurface because the gasses that build up in the body cause them to float. But the bodies of those murdered during Operation Condor were mutilated to ensure that they would never be found. According to "Living in the Crossfire" by Maria Alves and Philip Evanson, victims' intestines were typically removed before the bodies were dumped into the ocean to prevent them from floating.

In the course of arresting and abducting people, hundreds of children were rendered parentless by Operation Condor and its participating governments. The BBC reports that when Sara Mendez was kidnapped by the Uruguayan and Argentine military, they took her 20-day-old child and claimed that "this war was not against children." But in reality, children were taken advantage of and thrown into the crossfire by the governments with little regard.

According to a paper in the Journal of Latin American Studies, there are at least 13 confirmed cases of illegal adoptions from Argentina, Bolivia, and Uruguay. But the real numbers are likely much higher. People with children who were imprisoned or disappeared often had their children abducted, and sometimes a child was abducted if the parents were merely suspected of having dissident ties. According to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in countries like Argentina, children were subsequently given to soldiers or strangers, "with the intention that they remain hidden from their legitimate guardians." In Mendez's case, it would be almost 30 years before she and her child were reunited.

In Chile under the Pinochet regime, Mapuche families often had their children abducted. Sometimes social workers told them that they were too poor to keep their children. In other instances, mothers would be lied to and told that their child had died. These abductions operated on an international level, with children being sent to the United States, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Despite the fact that the United States is culpable in the atrocities perpetrated by Operation Condor, there has been no willingness by U.S. officials to take responsibility for their actions. In countries like Argentina, a federal criminal court convicted 15 people involved in crimes like torture and illegal detention during Operation Condor. But U.S. officials have been noticeably absent at such trials. Al Jazeera reports that Henry Kissinger has rejected calls to testify on numerous occasions.

In May 2001, Kissinger was in Paris when he was summoned to appear at the Palais de Justice in regard to the disappearance of several Chilean people during Operation Condor. He left France almost immediately. The Age reports that the very same year, Kissinger was also asked to testify in trials in both Argentina and Chile regarding Operation Condor, but he gave no response and never testified. The following year, Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon reportedly even asked Interpol to detain Kissinger for questioning.

According to "The Pinochet Effect" by Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Kissinger "was not interested" and British authorities claimed that they couldn't compel him to appear for questioning. Kissinger referred all of Judge Garzon's questions to the U.S. State Department and the State Department claimed that Kissinger couldn't answer questions "because he had immunity." As of February 2023, Kissinger has yet to testify or be held accountable in regard to his actions during Operation Condor.