{"id":310211,"date":"2025-12-22T12:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=310211"},"modified":"2025-12-18T13:47:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T13:47:41","slug":"operation-condor-transnational-murder-syndicate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/12\/operation-condor-transnational-murder-syndicate\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation Condor: Transnational Murder Syndicate"},"content":{"rendered":"

16 Dec 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0On November 25th 1975, the 60th birthday of Chile\u2019s CIA-installed dictator<\/a><\/strong> General Augusto Pinochet, high-ranking representatives of the repressive secret police forces of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay gathered in Santiago for a covert three-day summit. There, the quintet of US-sponsored Latin American fascist juntas forged an incendiary agreement<\/a><\/strong>. Dubbed \u2018Operation Condor\u2019 after Chile\u2019s national bird, over the next eight years the endeavour blazed a gruesome trail of repression, torture, and murder throughout the hemisphere and beyond, with tens of thousands of killed.<\/p>\n

Declassified records<\/a><\/strong> of the summit contain little trace of the horror that was to come. They primarily outline establishment of regular meetings between the oppressive agencies, formal and routine exchange of information, and the creation of a shared database \u201con people and organizations linked to subversion\u201d in the region – in particular, individuals and entities \u201cdirectly or indirectly linked to Marxism.\u201d The only hint of belligerence is a brief snippet on the Operation being concerned with \u201cattacking subversion related to our countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within months, Condor evolved into a transnational death squad nexus, with \u201csubversives\u201d the world over marked for execution. Of particular focus was the Revolutionary Coordinating Junta<\/a><\/strong> (JCR), an exile coalition of left-wing Latin American revolutionaries opposing the governments behind the Operation – which by 1976 also included Brazil. That July, a Condor meeting was convened, about which US intelligence learned. It was planned to insert operatives into Paris, where JCR was headquartered, to conduct intelligence gathering and ultimately, assassinations. A heavily redacted contemporary CIA memo<\/a><\/strong> noted:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe basic mission of \u2018Condor\u2019 teams being sent to operate in France would be to liquidate top-level [JCR] leaders\u2026Chile has \u2018many\u2019 (unidentified) targets in Europe\u2026The Uruguayans also are considering targets\u2026such as\u2026opposition politician Wilson Ferreira Aldunate, if he should ever travel to Europe. Some leaders of Amnesty International might be selected for the target list.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While the CIA installed all Condor\u2019s constituent governments via military coups invariably involving mass disappearances and slaughter of political opponents, the Agency was anxious about its Latin American proxies conducting \u201coffensive action outside their own jurisdictions,\u201d as a late July 1976<\/a><\/strong> CIA memo recorded. Not least because it raised the prospect of the Agency being \u201cwrongfully accused\u201d of responsibility for \u201cthis type of activity.\u201d The State Department was also intensely worried about the Operation\u2019s extraordinarily broad range of targets.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Operation Condor\u2019s growth 1975 – 1978<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018Growing Problems\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

A briefing dispatched<\/a><\/strong> to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in August 1976 recorded how Condor\u2019s members \u201csee themselves as embattled\u201d by phantom Marxist adversaries at home and abroad. \u201cDespite near decimation of the Marxist left in Chile and Uruguay, along with accelerating progress toward that goal in Argentina,\u201d the juntas were possessed of a \u201csiege mentality shading into paranoia.\u201d This was enhanced by \u201csuspicion\u2026the US has \u2018lost its will\u2019 to stand firm against Communism because of Vietnam,\u201d and d\u00e9tente<\/a> <\/strong>with the Soviet Union. As such:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFighting the absent pinkos remains a central goal of national security\u2026Some \u2018mistakes\u2019 are made by the torturers, who have difficulty finding logical victims. Murder squads kill harmless people and petty thieves.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In response to this illusory threat, pursuit of perceived \u201csubversives\u201d became absolutely central to the domestic and foreign policy of Condor governments. However, the State Department fretted how this crusade \u201cincreasingly translates into\u201d vicious oppression of \u201cnon-violent dissent from the left and center left.\u201d More generally, \u201csubversion\u201d was \u201cnever the most precise of terms.\u201d In the Latin American context, the categorisation \u201chas grown to include nearly anyone who opposes government policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Pau-de-arara (“parrot’s perch”): Beatings, electric shocks applied to arms, legs, genitals and anus. A torture method introduced by the CIA in Brazil through Operation Condor, conducted by Kissinger supposedly against Communism. The TMS Editor was subject to such torture in 1970s for his anti-military\/fascist\/dictatorship activism in Brazil.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

Resultantly, \u201cthere is a chance of persecution by foreign police acting on indirect, unknown information.\u201d The memo recorded how \u201cnumerous Uruguayan refugees have been murdered in Argentina,\u201d with \u201cwidespread\u201d and \u201ccredible\u201d accusations Buenos Aires was \u201cdoing their Uruguayan colleagues a favor,\u201d and a high risk the victims were just average citizens, not engaged in political activism, let alone insurrectionary violence. Concurrently, many officials in Condor countries spoke of fighting a \u201cThird World War\u201d against Communism globally.<\/p>\n

This narrative\u2019s utility was clear. \u201cIt justifies harsh and sweeping \u201cwartime\u201d measures,\u201d the State Department observed, while \u201c[emphasising] the international and institutional aspect, thereby justifying the exercise of power beyond national borders.\u201d Moreover, for the juntas involved in Operation Condor, \u201cit is important to their ego, their salaries, and their equipment budgets to believe in a Third World War.\u201d This shared self-interest was encouraging regional military governments to \u201c[band] together in what may well become a political bloc of some cohesiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The State Department believed \u201cthe broader implications\u201d of this development \u201cfor us and for future trends in the hemisphere\u201d were \u201cdisturbing\u201d, creating \u201ca range of growing problems.\u201d For one, Condor was damaging to the US\u2019 from a public relations perspective, as \u201cinternationally, the Latin generals look like our guys.\u201d Washington was \u201cespecially identified with Chile,\u201d so the country serving as the Operation\u2019s nucleus \u201ccannot do us any good.\u201d It was noted how Europeans \u201chate Pinochet & Co. with a passion that rubs off on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

TO CONTINUE READING<\/a> Go to Original – kitklarenberg.com<\/a><\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Kit Klarenberg is a British investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16 Dec 2025 – The repressive secret police forces of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay gathered in Santiago for a covert three-day summit where the quintet of US-sponsored fascist juntas forged \u2018Operation Condor.\u2019 Over the next eight years it blazed a gruesome trail of repression, torture, and murder throughout the hemisphere and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":249689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[867,3143,2642,417,1538,133,950,541,1624,3324,86,2135,2059,112,2137,880,1759,70],"class_list":["post-310211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean","tag-anglo-america","tag-anti-hegemony","tag-anti-imperialism","tag-bullying","tag-chile","tag-cia","tag-invasion","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-mafia","tag-north-america","tag-occupation","tag-operation-condor","tag-organized-crime","tag-pentagon","tag-south-america","tag-state-terrorism","tag-targeted-assassination","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310211"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310214,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310211\/revisions\/310214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}