Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America

by J. Patrice McSherry

This powerful study makes a compelling case about the key U.S. role in state terrorism in Latin America during the Cold War. Long hidden from public view, Operation Condor was a military network created in the 1970s to eliminate political opponents of Latin American regimes. Its key members were the anticommunist dictatorships of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil, later joined by Peru and Ecuador, with covert support from the U.S. government. Drawing on a wealth of testimonies, declassified files, and Latin American primary sources, J. Patrice McSherry examines Operation Condor from numerous vantage points: its secret structures, intelligence networks, covert operations against dissidents, political assassinations worldwide, commanders and operatives, links to the Pentagon and the CIA, and extension to Central America in the 1980s. The author convincingly shows how, using extralegal and terrorist methods, Operation Condor hunted down, seized, and executed political opponents across borders. McSherry argues that Condor functioned within, or parallel to, the structures of the larger inter-American military system led by the United States, and that declassified U.S. documents make clear that U.S. security officers saw Condor as a legitimate and useful 'counterterror' organization. Revealing new details of Condor operations and fresh evidence of links to the U.S. security establishment, this controversial work offers an original analysis of the use of secret, parallel armies in Western counterinsurgency strategies. It will be a clarion call to all readers to consider the long-term consequences of clandestine operations in the name of 'democracy.'

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, American History, The United States Of America, World History, Latin American History

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 2005

Reviews

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

After decades shrouded in secrecy, the efforts of the political scientist J. Patrice McSherry, investigative journalist John Dinges, and others, have made remarkable strides in exposing Western audiences to Operation Condor – a U.S.-backed collaboration pact between South American dictatorships in the 1970s and 80s to target, torture, and assassinate political opponents across national borders, and indeed, on other continents as well. Though the basic framework of Condor has been known for some time, McSherry, who conducted extensive archival research, adds a great deal to the understanding of how Condor functioned, and the level of backing that it enjoyed from Washington.

In tracing Operation Condor’s roots to the U.S.’ backing of “stay-behind” armies to combat “subversives” in Europe after World War II, documenting the Condor states’ moves – alongside Washington – in fomenting brutal civil wars in Central America in the 1980s, and situating Condor as a precursor for the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program and other elements of the supposed “War on Terror,” McSherry’s work is vital in understanding not just the specific features of Operation Condor, but also how U.S. foreign policy has functioned and continues to function to the present. A highly recommended, disturbing work.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good bit of historical research. One would hope that it serves as a jumping off point for further evidence and outlines of US operation of the Condor network as the subject is sadly neglected in US academia (for reasons one could probably infer.) Some aspects were admittedly neglected, atrocities and ops undertaken during antiguerilla campaigns in favor of those committed in seeking legal leftwing groups being one of them. McSherry’s book also could have benefited a bit by including a bit more on the political history which allowed Argentina to have the leadership role it did as well as the other components. Overall though, she does a great job of illustrating how the various layers of decentralization and deniability of the terror campaigns were used to empower them. Would have loved some schematics of the Telex networks involved, and whatever was going on at Colonia Dignidad too.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic examination of Operation Condor, its scope, its participants, and the key role of the United States. McSherry uses a meticulous review of primary and secondary sources to expose the connection between Condor and the greater Global American Holocaust more commonly called the Cold War.

By demonstrating the direct throughline connecting Operation Gladio, French counterinsurgency use of state terror in Algeria and Vietnam, and the Phoenix Program, we can get a much better appreciation for Condor not as simply an isolated period particular to Latin America, but as the further evolution of the greater Fascist International network knit together by the United States as part of its global war against the working class.

A vital reference work.

[Luca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A real and raw look into the absolutely unspeakable lengths the United States would go to maintain its illegal monopolies abroad. A stark reminder of the real human cost maintaining the US empire and broader hegemony. This book is a must read for anyone who believes that the US ever stood for peace, liberty and democracy. It explores how they backed a ruthless 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 between the time frame of 1975 to 1983.

It goes into detail how the United States high command ordered, installed and collaborated with some of the most brutal military Junta dictatorships ever seen. Along with describing how the CIA directly trained paramilitary forces(commonly known as death squads) in the methods of kidnapping, torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. It shows the consequences of installing the brutal regimes seen in Paraguay under the Stroessner administration, Argentina under the Videla administration, Brazil under the Humberto Branco administration, and the most well known Chile under the Pinochet administration to name a small few. One of the saddest examples of this imperialism shown in the book is the brutal overthrow of the 28th president of Chile Salvador Allende.

Salvador Allende was the first ever marxist elected to power in latin America and a very successful one at that. Allende was praised by his countrymen as a hero of the nation due to sweeping reforms he implemented immediately after taking office. Some of these reforms included nationalization of large-scale industries (copper mining and banking), the health-care system, educational system, a program of free milk for children in the schools and in the shanty towns of Chile, and an expansion of the land seizure and redistribution already begun under his predecessor. He reformed agriculture, the minimum wage, inflation, women's rights, made tuition free, all of this to great success for the people of Chile.

The problem with this? The US government believed that Allende would become closer to socialist countries, such as Cuba and the Soviet Union. They feared that Allende would push Chile into socialism, and therefore lose all of the US "investments" made in Chile. Congress then decided on Allende. The U.S. feared the example of a "well-functioning socialist experiment" in the region and exerted diplomatic, economic, and covert pressure upon Chile's elected socialist government. Speaking frankly, then secretary of state and despicable war criminal Henry Kissinger said "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." The result of this decision was a brutal coup detat against Allende and the installation of brutal fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet. The result of this still being felt in Chile today.

[Yukinosita Yukino · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5.

Imagine a transnational surveillance and terror machine specializing in the “decapitation” of any suspected dissident, while exiles have nowhere to escape under inter-state cooperations. Imagine arbitrary mass torture and interrogation in abandoned garages and military bases, surreal scenes fitting for horror movies. These were all the graphic realities under the Condor, a collaborative system of intelligence that the U.S. orchestrated with the Southern cone dictators in a global context of anticommunism and counterinsurgency. J. Patrice McSherry’s Predatory States is simultaneously a detailed analysis and a compelling indictment of the U.S. and Latin American dictators’ appalling record of crimes in constructing and operating this system and the lasting trauma they imposed on Southern cone societies. Powerful and unsettling, this book is essential for understanding the extent to which the ruling class and U.S. hegemons are willing to employ in resisting social changes, though certainly not the last word on this subject.

The uncharted territories this research touched upon are astounding, raising methodological problems, especially when dealing with oceans of documents. Firstly, layers of selectivity complicate historian’s comprehension. There is prevalent “selective deletion” of phrases, lines, paragraphs, and selective presentation of chronicles open to historians. Those obstacles can only be remedied by historians reading between the lines and making inferences from circumstantial evidence. Also, U. S security files are plagued with “grey propaganda,” mixing truth with lies or underplaying significance through deceptive dictions, which the author countered by cross reference oral testimonies (p.xxviii). Lastly, most Latin American state archives were not declassified at the time of writing. Yet the evidence is ample enough to “connect dots,” allowing a systematic picture of oppression to emerge.

The subsequent chapters are organized efficiently to reinforce the pictures. Chapter 2 analyzes Condor’s dual origins: paramilitary group (“stay behind armies”) in Europe and the Inter-American military system (collaboration to crush insurgencies) after the Cuban revolution. Chapter 3 introduces a neglected meeting in February 1974 as instrumental in the genesis of Condor, and in 1974-75 “waves of disappearance” confirms Condor was already operating before the well-documented “official” founding in November 1975 meeting. Chapter 4, the climax of violence in around 1976-1980, saw the “killing machine” in full operation and a detailed discussion of the U.S Congress and Kissinger’s role. Chapter 5 presents Condor’s most secret Phase III assassinations against overseas exiles, while Chapter 6 gives an “individual-level view” in examining key Condor commanders to study “how are men molded into torturers?” (p.177-178). Moving chronologically and spatially, Chapter 7 outlines Condor's expansion into Central America (especially Honduras) in the 1980s, the hawkish and overtly aggressive Reagan era. The lethal collaboration between Argentine and U.S. military and intelligence forces in expanding Condor into Central America “merits a book-length study”, which the author only schematically sketched (p.231). These empirical chapters are backed by at least 120 footnotes each, mostly primary sources (declassified archives, author’s interviews, contemporary reports, etc.), testifying to the book’s admirable originality and rigor.

Running through her analysis are two handy analytical concepts: counterinsurgency and parallel state. Counterinsurgency, sometimes called the “national security doctrine”, has its origin in Europe’s “stay behind armies” in their elimination of suspected communist influences, the French colonial campaign in Algeria, and the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. Assuming hostile forces infiltrated societies, counterinsurgency legitimated the “expansive and politicized role” of armed forces to eradicate potential “subversion” (p.3). Under this genealogy, Condor was not an “anomaly.” However, in the southern cone, the ferocity to which counterinsurgency was employed led to the general “militarization of state” when increasingly large (and eventually all) segments of society were targeted as potentially subversive (p.19). Against the “theory of two demons,” the author pointed out that state violence targeted much more than guerilla rebels, but more often trade unions, students, activists, democratic institutions, etc. (p.27-29).

Meanwhile, Condor’s operation generally relied on sectors known as “parallel states”: semi-autonomous yet state-backed institutions to carry out illegal violence, playing the “bad coups” for the U.S. and southern cone governments in their “dirty wars” against their citizens. The crucial deniability they offered was to make violence “visible on the one hand, deniable on the other,” the former for terrorizing its citizens and the latter for its international image (p.244). It allowed manipulative propaganda when carefully planned violence is either attributed to “out-of-control death squads” or leftist internal disputes (p.20/244). Indeed, the author defined Condor as the “transnational arm of the parallel state,” suggesting its power sometimes surpassed that of the conventional military. A Chilean defense file in 1975 spoke of only three sources of power in Chile: God, Pinochet, and DINA (p.72). Parastatal institutions are lethal weapons, but were also Frankenstein’s monsters, sometimes deviating from the state’s objectives to conduct organized crimes (ex: drug trafficking), “further corrupting state and society” (p.22).

One surprising aspect was how thoroughly global the Condor system is. There is a “class nature” of Condor, as Washington's hegemonic interest "merged" with LA elites’ wish to keep power amidst 1960s social changes, thus using violence to “bolster or install systems” that lacked popular support (p.26). It’s also firmly tied to the global anti-communist network. For example, the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (Triple-A) collaborated with Franco’s Spanish government and the Italian fascist group P-2 (p.74). Most astounding is how vehemently the Latin American perpetrators --- military juntas, security officials, death squads --- identified themselves in fighting a "global holy war" of anti-communism (p.17, 178, 200). Rightwing leaders consistently pushed the U.S. to act more aggressively and ferociously, demanding more support when the U.S. was partially bound by Congress's resistance, especially in the Carter era. The author presents a striking case when two U.S. congresspersons were assassinated in Washington, D.C., due to objecting aid to Uruguay’s military. Such actions, one ventures to speculate, are unthinkable without the green light and active support from more reactionary branches of the U.S. government. This Latin American study, therefore, also revealed severe internal U.S. power struggles between different branches and positions within the U.S. government. Finally, the global image is a vital function of the parastatal structure (p.127).

The analysis, standing coherent and convincing as it is, also left many elements out. Sometimes it’s for the better. For example, the general absence of national narratives cemented the image of Condor as an inter-state structure instead of local outbursts of violence from evil dictators. However, I wish this book had engaged more with the existing narratives of denial or whitewashing, which the author has vowed to combat. Inserting those narratives as epigraphs, using the chapters’ evidence to refute it, might be more polemically powerful than a purely standalone inquiry. Rhetorical analysis is also potentially fruitful, especially with regard to the author's various quotes from the U.S. documents. For example, Kissinger's 1976 report blandly stated, "Southern Cone countries��. reportedly formalized arrangements to facilitate information exchanges and the movement of security officials on government business” (p.79). Such technical, administrative, and matter-of-fact language is used to numb the viewers, concealing the terrorist and reactionary nature of Condor. This might be linked to understanding how the Condor operators in Chapter 6 were indoctrinated to not only believe these dirty methods were necessary and efficient but even "laudable" in the anti-communist war. Perhaps, like Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, these were purely at the unreflective administration that numbs the mind, making such reproducible banality of evil even more upsetting. At one point, she suggests rather cryptically that the Condor represents a “dark side of modernity” (p.22), but regrettably, she does not continue the discussion on this theoretical front.

This book also did not sufficiently distinguish U.S. and Latin American agencies, often conflating the two. The conclusion's brief discussion of three levels of U.S. responsibilities is hardly sufficient. Overwhelmed by details of various operations, readers are left with the impression that acts of violence are mushed together in a general indictment of U.S. and Latin American dictators, whereas reality must be more complicated. This, however, might be simply asking too much, considering the levels of archival distortion and censorship in the U.S. archive and the general unavailability of Latin American archives. The author admits when discussing the most sensitive (therefore most heavily censored) Phase III assassinations that direct involvement of the CIA is “as always, difficult to substantiate" (p.166). However, she pointed out how the CIA and Pentagon “ferociously resisted” the lawful declassification processes, suggesting that they have the most to hide (p.243).
Another omission from the panorama was the various victims of Condor, direct and indirect, which also went undistinguished in the author’s presentation of statistics (“thousands,” etc.) How was daily life carried on? What were the attempts of resistance? In the author's justified insistence to detail the monstrosities of Condor's crimes, she obscured the potentially lively world of the oppressed people, a lot of whom were not merely the silent receiving ends of violence beaten into complete submission. For example, the meticulously intimate portrait of key Condor perpetrators in Chapter 6 could be well accompanied by a parallel tracing of several key victims or general descriptions of life under Condor surveillance. In the present book, readers can only “piece together” the underlying thrust of commoner’s experiences, as the author did with archives. From a narrative standpoint, the book would also benefit from a coda or an epilogue narrating years after, starting with Pinochet’s arrest in 1998 due to the extraordinary effort of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón, which was regrettably also unmentioned. This book, then, is best read accompanied by materials on leftwing and church resistance, solidarity networks of exiles, and human rights activists if one wants a more comprehensive picture of the Condor years.

However, Condor’s lasting impact on society is unmistakable. It casts a long shadow and trauma over the southern cone, which the author delineates succinctly. Condor’s aim was “keeping the population fearful and politically inert” (p.243). Equally damaging are years of “psychological warfare”: propaganda and disinformation accompanied mass violence, creating a constant sense of “ambiguity, unreality and dread,” thus terror that inspired self-censorship (p.7). One can only imagine how much healing effort must be required to eradicate decades of terror and consciousness manipulation.

It’s astonishing that until the late 1990s, both Latin American and U.S. officials involved denied the existence of the Condor system. Yet, in a memorable phrase of a persecuted Bolivian miner, a monster may disappear from sight, but it will leave a bloody trail behind that can’t be erased (p.241). This book is an inconclusive attempt to capture this trail from oblivion, and though not without limitations, it is extraordinarily important.

[Dylan Horne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evidently the pre-eminent work on anti communist operations in Latin America. *Uber* academic.

[Tia Malkin-fontecchio · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for anyone interested in U.S. sponsorship of counterinsurgency in the Cold War period. Not only does the author clearly demonstrate that the U.S. played a decisive role in the creation of Operation Condor, she offers ample evidence that the U.S. offered more than training. U.S intelligence was used to select victims for disappearance, US communications technology was used to coordinate cross-border disappearances, and CIA officers were present and participated in the interrogation of prisoners. There is also evidence the CIA was aware the torture and later execution of these prisoners. One of the things I really appreciated about the book was that McSherry placed US policy in Latin America within the larger global context of the Cold War and demonstrated connections between US policies in postwar Europe (the stay-behind armies) and Latin America. She also fully illuminated the collaboration between the military dictatorships of South America in this period. The cross-border operations were a major focus of the book, with Argentina and Chile receiving the most attention. Finally, McSherry offered ample evidence that Kissinger played a direct role, personally authorizing and furthering the activities of Operation Condor during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

[Patrick Link · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anti-communist hysteria was the excuse for countless crimes against humanity by Western powers during the Cold War and the coordination of the Condor system in Southern Cone military dictatorships was a prime enabler of oppression. The book connects Condor to predecessors and successors, undoubtedly some of the same tactics of kidnapping, assassination, and intimidation are in regular use today.

[Alexa Doran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutal. Belligerently important.

The lost star is because there is no attention to language, and the organizational structure and lack of context often leads to confusion. I haven't had to keep up with so many Josés since 100 Years of Solitude.

[Kenneth Brewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is well written, and covers some of the major elements in the cooperation between different fascist intelligence agencies as well as the CIA.