Operation Condor Research Paper

It is almost impossible to fully explain the horrors of Operation Condor. One can only attempt to explain this despicable outcome. In short, Operation Condor was a movement of political tyranny involving assassinations and governmental operations formally executed in 1975 by the dictatorships of the Southern Cone of South America. The Program was designed to eliminate assumed socialist and communist influences and ideas and to control an active or potential opposition movement against the partaking governments. Basically, any person who was thought to be a socialist or who spoke out against the government was disappeared. These people are referred to as the disappeared, because they were thrown out of helicopters into an ocean or river and their bodies were never found.
Innocent people were murdered, including women and children. The exact number of deaths resulting from Operation Condor is unknown to this day, but it is estimated that a minimum of sixty thousand people were viciously murdered. Condor’s key members were the governments of Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay,
Bolivia, and Brazil. Even the United States had a secretive participation within the operation. To understand the reason for such a terrible event, mainly focusing on Chile, one must first understand some of the history behind Operation Condor.
First, I will discuss Salvatore Allende, who was the president of Chile from 1970-1973. Allende pursued a policy called “La Via Chilena”, which translates in English to The Chilean Way of Socialism. Allende’s socialist ideas included the nationalization of certain industries such as the mining of copper, the healthcare system, and the redistribution of land. This was opposed by land owners, the middle class, and even the U.S. owned companies, which Allende did not fully compensate for the mines they had owned. These groups were against these socialist views, because they would diminish the poorly distributed wealth that these groups had acquired. Allende did this, because he wanted to improve the economic welfare of Chile’s poorest
citizens. The opposition of Allende’s socialist views led to his downfall, and to the downfall of socialism in Chile. For example, after their involvement in the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and political opposition in Cuba, the United States did not want another Marxist regime in the Western Hemisphere. Even Chilean military officials, such as Augusto Pinochet, did not approve of Allende’s socialist practices. In 1973 Allende appointed Augusto Pinochet, the General Chief of Staff of the Chilean army, to be the Commander-In-Chief of the Chilean army. However, Allende did not suspect that Pinochet would betray him. On September 11, 1973 the combined Chilean military overthrew Allende’s socialist government. They did so through a coup detat, or sudden illegal deposition of a government, which consisted of bombing the presidential palace La Moneda. Allende allegedly committed suicide during the attack. Once Pinochet took over he ruled with an iron fist, killing thousands of people, thus enforcing Operation Condor.