Operation Condor: U.S. and Latin America’s Dirty War

The governments of eight Latin American countries created secret pacts to jointly eliminate by any means necessary members of communist groups.

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet shaking hands with Henry Kissinger in 1976 By Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Chile. — Archivo General Histórico del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores — Wikimedia Commons

The Countries Involved

Eight Latin American countries led by either right-wing dictators or military juntas feared being overthrown by communist insurgencies. They created a pact with each other and with the aid of the CIA, fought back. In this article, we will explore what happened and the dire consequences their actions created. These countries are:

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Peru
• Ecuador
• Brazil
• Chile
• Paraguay
• Uruguay

Latin America and the Cold War

Sometime in the late 1940s, the Soviet Union began to use guerrilla insurgencies to overthrow governments that were friendly to the US. Their grand strategy was simply to encircle the U.S. with Soviet friendly regimes as a countermeasure to America’s influence in Europe and other parts of the world.