This piece examines how the United States supported Operation Condor, a coordinated campaign of kidnappings, torture, disappearances, and assassinations carried out by South American military dictatorships during the Cold War. Driven by anti-communist ideology and the Domino Theory, the U.S. backed coups, empowered right-wing regimes, and ignored massive human rights abuses. The article highlights key examples, especially the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. to show how U.S. foreign policy prioritized capitalist interests over democracy and freedom. It argues that Operation Condor exposes the gap between America’s self-image as a defender of liberty and its actual role in enabling state terror across Latin America.
Image by Great Beyond. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
MATIAS JOFRE 