MATIAS JOFRE

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This op-ed reflects on how, fifty years after the Chilean coup, Latin America is still grappling with the legacy of Operation Condor—and especially the role major media outlets played in supporting military dictatorships. While Brazil’s Globo has recently admitted it was wrong to back the 1964 coup, powerful outlets like Argentina’s Clarín and Chile’s El Mercurio have never issued similar apologies and continue to dominate their countries’ media landscapes. The authors argue that true media pluralism never emerged after the dictatorships; instead, the concentrated media structures built during those regimes remain intact. Efforts by left-leaning governments in the 2000s to reform broadcasting laws were meant to break this authoritarian legacy, but reforms have been uneven and often met fierce resistance. The piece warns against using “press freedom” as a shield to protect monopolies and calls for modern media regulations that reflect democratic values, support community media, and confront the unresolved influence of outlets that once enabled authoritarian rule.