Operation Condor

Southern Cone meeting in Asunción?

INR Analysis: Human Rights in Latin America

This report recounts the operation of the detention, torture, and imprisonment of the Brazilian exile Jefferson Cardim de Alencar Osario, along with his son, and his nephew, in Buenos Aires on 11th December 1970 and their arrival at Buenos Aires port from Colonia (Uruguay). The operation was coordinated and carried out by military attachés belonging to the Brazilian embassy in Buenos Aires and agents of the Coordinación Federal (Federal Coordination) of the Argentine Federal Police. Even though the report is not signed, it is known that the military attaché was Nilo Caneppa da Silva.

This report was originally written in the Brazilian Embassy in Uruguay. It analyses the situation of refugees and Brazilian exiles in Uruguay, which fall under three main boxes according to their legal status: 1) political asylum seekers, 2) refugees (political or not), and 3) permanent residents.  Among the political exiles to receive asylum from the president of Uruguay were important figures such as João Goulart, Leonel Brizola, and Jefferson Cardim. The report dedicates several paragraphs to Goulart and Brizola, detailing their activities including Goulart’s potential trips to the United States and France and Brizola’s confinement in the small resort town of Atlántida in Uruguay. Whereas political refugees were individuals who entered Uruguay either illegally or with a tourist visa. The border between Brazil and Uruguay facilitated the movement of people and the possibility of accessing “territorial” asylum. Finally, permanent residents were people who had the right to apply for Uruguayan nationality on legal grounds.

This report recounts the operation that took place on 16th June 1971, leading to the detention and subsequent forced disappearance of the Brazilian exile Edmur Péricles Camargo. Argentine police officers forcibly dragged Camargo from a LAN-Chile plane, which had just arrived at Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport on a layover between Santiago (Chile) and Montevideo (Uruguay). A Brazilian Airforce (FAB) plane landed in Buenos Aires on 17th June and travelled to the Galeão Air Base in Rio (Brazil) with Camargo on board, escorted by Brazilian agents. The report is not signed but there is a stamp which reads “Adido do Exército” (“Army Attaché”) and “Uruguai” (“Uruguay”).

This report records that the Brazilian exile Edmur Péricles Camargo, nicknamed “Gauchão”, travelled on the LAN No.153 flight from Santiago (Chile) to Montevideo (Uruguay). He was carrying three letters with him: the first, which was addressed to a Uruguayan doctor, was actually a communication between Brazilian exiles in Uruguay and the Tupamaros guerrilla organisation. Edmur had been told not to contact Leonel Brizola and his followers in Uruguay. There is no signature and only a stamp can be seen at the bottom.

This report records that Brazilian exiles in Chile were worried about the disappearance of Edmur Péricles Camargo. In response, they handed a document to the Chilean Interior Ministry recounting Camargo’s trajectory and his journey to Montevideo on 16th June 1971 for health reasons. Camargo was due to return on 10th July but he had not contacted any of his comrades, who had received information that he had been kidnapped by Argentine and Brazilian police agents and later handed over to the Brazilian authorities. There is no signature and only a stamp can be seen at the bottom.

November 1973, General Sergio Arellano, Commander of the Second Army Division, Left Santiago on a Second Mission at the Request of the Junta Leadership.

This report recounts that Joaquim Pires Cerveira and other Brazilian exiles in Chile suspected that an aeronautics attaché in Buenos Aires was responsible for Edmur Camargo’s disappearance. Cerveira was able to get hold of copies of records from the airline LAN-Chile confirming that Camargo had been forced to get off the aeroplane signed by the pilot in Ezeiza. This information clarifies doubts as to whether Camargo was actually arrested. There is no signature and the document is stamped at the bottom.

This document recounts that the Cuban Intelligence Directorate (G2) agent, Sonia Lafoz was having a romantic affair with the former Brazilian naval attaché, Joaquim Cerveira in Chile. He disclosed to Sonia that, after having received information about Edmur Camargo’s trip, he had contacted the aeronautic attaché in Buenos Aires, who was going to lead the operation to arrest Camargo. The news spread quickly among Brazilian exiles. Sonia managed to convince Cerveira to give her Camargo’s flight details. She was in fact a friend of Camargo’s and also infiltrated the Brazilian Embassy through the naval attaché. The document is unsigned and only a stamp can be seen at the bottom.

This report recounts that one of Brizola’s relatives, João Calixto, took a three-day trip from Porto Alegre (Brazil) to Montevideo (Uruguay) to deliver a report about the military situation in Brazil. The report states that the former governor of Rio Grande do Sul state (southern Brazil) would be “inactive” from thereafter, considering that nothing more could be done in Brazil. Brizola was living in an estancia in the Uruguayan department of Durazno. The letter is unsigned and stamped at the bottom.

In this document, the Brazilian Centro de Informações do Exterior (Centre of Foreign Information, CIEX) requests information about the Brazilian citizen Sydney José Marques in order to confirm if he is the same person as Sydney Marques, the member of the Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party’s (Partido Comunista Revolucionário) leadership. It also requests any further information to help identify Sydney Marques. The letter is unsigned and only a stamp can be seen at the bottom.

This letter is composed of two parts. The head of the Foreigners’ Specialized Branch of São Paulo Police (Brazil), Homero Honorio Ferreira, writes to the general director of São Paulo Police, Lucio Vieria. Ferreira forwards a receipt to Vieria that he had received from the Argentine police at the Iguazú Police Precinct when they seized four Argentine citizens who were living undercover in Brazil. The Argentines were handed over by the Brazilian police and held at the police station while their records were being investigated. The report is accompanied by the attached receipt from the Iguazú Police Precinct. The document is signed by the head delegate, Homero Honorio Ferreira.

This report forwards information on the close liaison in September 1973 between the Uruguayan Army and the Chilean Army to deal with the large number of Uruguayans in Chile, many of whom are presumed to be Tupamaro guerrilla fighters. The report notes that Uruguay has a small team of officers working at the Chilean Army’s Headquarters in Santiago in order to review the status of all Uruguayans in Chile.

Close Liaison with Chilean Army to Investigate Uruguayans in Chile.

Interrogation of Brazilian prisoners.

Official decree on the creation of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINA).

Elements in the Chilean government are attempting to locate and assassinate major leftist leaders.

This report states that the Brazilian private consulate in the Argentine city of Alvear had received a tip-off from the customs authorities at Brazil’s Itaqui Port that the Argentine Alberto Rosales had entered Brazilian territory via the port on 26th August 1974, travelling in a red car and accompanied by a woman. Rosales was on a wanted list in Argentina and had received a prison order, according to information provided by the customs authorities in Alvear. The document is unsigned.

This document recounts that the Argentine Federal Police had completed an operation in hotels in Buenos Aires in order to seize weapons. In the Hotel Madrid, two Brazilians, one Bolivian, and a Uruguayan were arrested, all of whom were political exiles who had arrived from Chile through the Argentine Embassy. Appendix a) mentions other Brazilian citizens, specifically the former major Joaquim Pires Cerveira and João Batista Rita, who had supposedly been handed over to the Brazilian authorities. Appendix b) shares news from Rio (Brazil) and mentions the Brazilian Church’s concern regarding the whereabouts of the political asylums including Cerveira. (Appendices a) and b) are not included). There is no signature.

Arrest of Jorge Isaac Fuentes Alarcon on 17 May 1975 in Asunción, Paraguay after he illegally entered the country from Argentina.

Newspaper clippings, appendices and magazines, and special reports on the Revolutionary Coordinating Junta (JCR), the COMACHI (Chile), the Frente Patriótico de Resistencia Chileno, Relaciones de Tercermundistas con Protestantes en América Latina, support for Chilean Communism from Buenos Aires and other intelligence.

Ninety-first Meeting of the Working Group/Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism, Wednesday, September 4, 1975, 2:30 p.m., Department of State, Room 7516.

Reponse to memo 014, 3/10/75.

Newspaper clippings, appendices and magazines, general situation and special report on the X Congress of the IV International.

Urgent extra information via telex from the Embassy of Buenos Aires. Information from Commander Jorge Osvaldo.

Newspaper clippings, appendices and magazines, and general situation.

Minutes on the Conclusions of the First Interamerican Meeting on National Intelligence.

Newspaper and magazine clippings and various intelligence including that Enríquez is in Buenos Aires.

Listed Uruguayans disappeared in 1976 in Argentina and reappeared in Uruguay.

Human rights: Ruben de Gregorio.

Newspaper clippings, magazines, magazine clippings, and various appendices.

Newspaper clippings, magazines, and various pieces of intelligence from Buenos Aires.

Newspaper clippings, magazines, magazine clippings, and various appendices.

Newspaper clippings, magazines, magazine clippings, and various appendices. 

Comment: the international press has reported statements of leaders of the Chilean Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) in exile lamenting the disappearance and presumed arrest by Argentine authorities of MIR leader, Edgardo Enriquez. 

Disappearance of Top Leader of Chilean MIR.

Legat contact.

Possible international implications of violent deaths of political figures abroad.

Body of ex-Bolivian President Torres found.

List of refugees detained or missing in Argentina as of June 1976.

Trends in the Southern Cone.

European Phase of Operation Condor.

Decision by Condor countries to suspend plans for action operations in Europe until Brazil decides whether it will participate.

Letter from Wilson Ferreira Aldunate opposing the abduction of Hector Gutierrez Ruiz and Zelmar Michelini.

This document is comprised of two parts. The first sheet is printed with the letterhead of Rio de Janeiro’s Serviço Nacional de Informações (National Information Service, SNI). It indicates that a list of subversive people wanted by the Uruguayan authorities is being sent to numerous Brazilian military agencies such as Rio de Janeiro’s Centro de Informações da Marinha (Navy Information Centre, CENIMAR) and Centro de Informações de Segurança da Aeroná (Aeronautics Safety Information Centre, CISA). The second sheet, signed by the Uruguayan army chief of staff General Luis Quierolo, requests that the people named on the list be captured for their links with subversive organisations. The sheet contains the name of each of the six people, together with their date of birth, their identity card number, and their most recent known address. The letter asks that the agents let the army’s general command know once the people have been arrested. The document is not signed.

Foreign Political Matters- Argentina and Chile.

Operation Condor- instructions to Ambassadors.

This IR provides information on joint counterinsurgency operations by several countries in South America. Information was provided by US Embassy legal Attache who has excellent contacts within the State Secretariat for Information and Federal Police Force.

Press material, magazines, letters and various comments.

Jorge Zaffaroni and Maria Emilia Zaffaroni.

Foreign political matters Argentina and Chile.

On a national board and TV hookup the evening of October 28, the joint forces announced the capture of 62 subversives belonging to the Party for the Victory of the People (PVP).

This document contains a list of names of Argentine citizens who were being tracked down by the Argentine military and police authorities for having committed subversive acts. It requests that the said individuals must be immediately arrested and the agency must be informed of any citizens who are living in Brazil illegally. While those who are living in the country legally must be tracked down and kept under closed surveillance while the agency is being informed of their arrest. There are no individual signatures but a stamp can be seen at the bottom from the Brazilian military.

This search request corresponds to two Argentine citizens, Ricardo Luiz Franco and Maria Catalina Benassi, who were accused of belonging to a subversive organisation called the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People’s Revolutionary Army, ERP). Franco and Benassi were both living in Porto Alegre (Brazil) at the time. The document asks for the two Argentines to be tracked down and arrested and for further relevant information to be shared. The document is not signed but there is a stamp belonging to the Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (Department of Political and Social Order, DOPS) operating in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

Arrested Uruguayan subversives.

Meeting of Condor member countries in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 13-16 December 1976, to discuss psychological warfare operations.

The advising minister of the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1976, Marcos Camilo Cortes, reports that, former Brazilian president João Goulart’s coffin had crossed the international bridge to Uruguay and, from there, it would continue making its way to the Brazilian city of São Borja, according to the Brazilian consul in the Argentine city of Poso de los Libres. The consul added that everything had gone smoothly, including in Uruguay.

The advisory minister of the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1976, Marco Camilo Cortes, addresses the telegram to the Minister of Foreign Relations to whom she sends information about the passing of former Brazilian president João Goulart. News received by the consul in the Argentine city of Paso de los Libres, Ney Faria, suggests that the former president died from a heart attack while he was in Argentina, near the locality of Mercedes. Cortes writes that since necessary provisions are already being implemented, both via the consulate and directly at the frontier, he shall abstain from making an official contact with the Argentine authorities unless the Ministry instructs him to do so.

The advising minister of the Brazilian Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1976, Marcos Camilo Cortes, addresses the telegram to the Minister of Foreign Relations, notifying him of the arrival of former Brazilian president Goulart’s body to the Argentine city of Paso de los Libres. Cortes reports that the Brazilian consul in the city, Ney Faria, had confirmed that he had already actioned all the possible measures at his disposal but he wanted instructions from the Minister regarding the “delicate aspects of the case”. Cortes advises the Minister that, if he should choose to send special instructions to the consul Faria, that he send them via the Army’s radio due to the difficulties contacting Paso de los Libres via telephone.

Refugee offices ransacked, UNHCR reports.

Summary of Operation Condor as of March 1977 prepared by the CIA.

This report is addressed to the head delegate Dr. Silvio Pereira Machado. The unknown writer of this correspondence recounts that, on 15th April 1977, he or she accompanied two Argentine Federal Police officers to a meeting with the Colonel Felix de Souza in São Paulo under the request of the Argentine consul Julio Alfredo Freixas. The Argentine police asked for two Argentine citizens to be arrested while they were living in São Paulo. The unknown writer adds that on 19th April 1977, the Argentine police officers returned to Buenos Aires (Argentine), bringing two prisoners with them. The document is not signed.

Argentine refugees in Brazil.

Counterterrorism in the Southern Cone.

This letter is written by Sérgio Paranhos Fleury: the head of Brazil’s death squads and leading delegate of the Brazilian Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (Department for Political and Social Order). Fleury reiterates a previous request that he had made to the Argentine consul in the Brazilian city of São Paulo. He asks for the personal details and passport of the Argentine citizen Miguel Ángel Ricci, who was being detained in the DOPS office in São Paulo. The letter is signed by Fleury.

South America's Southern Cone -- bloc in formation?

The telegram writes that the governor of Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, Leonel Brizola, arrived in Buenos Aires the previous night according to press reports. The military attaché is already in contact with the corresponding Argentine organisations to carry out the necessary arrangements. As soon as the requested information is received, it will be sent straight to the Ministry. The telegram comes from the Brazilian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Claúdio Garcia de Souza.

This document records information about the governor of Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, Leonel Brizola that the military attaché had received from the Uruguayan Secretaría de Informaciones de Estado (State Information Secretariat, SIDE). Since his arrival in Buenos Aires, Leonel had been staying in an apartment on Uruguay Street. On the day that the telegram was sent, Brizola was due to leave the apartment for Buenos Aires’ Ezeiza International Airport, where he would take the 8pm flight to New York with various stopovers along the way. The telegram comes from the Brazilian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Claúdio Garcia de Souza.

This telegram writes that Leonel Brizola and those who accompanied him decided at last minute not to take the Braniff Airways flight to New York. Instead, they later took the Aerolíneas Argentinas flight no.3000 that covers the direct route from Buenos Aires to New York. The telegram comes from the Brazilian ambassador in Buenos Aires, Claúdio Garcia de Souza.

Reported Arrest of Epifanio Mendez Fleitas, Mopoco Leader.

Human rights: Ruben de Gregorio.

Human rights round up from the Ambassador of the US Embassy in Buenos Aires to the State Secretary in Washington D.C.

The report records that, between 16th and 20th December 1977, the guerrilla group Montoneros held a meeting in Santos city situated in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. During this meeting, they discussed the operations to be carried out during the World Cup in Argentina. The Montoneros organisation is going to ramp up its operations during the World Cup, aiming to hijack the radio and television transmissions to spread messages against the Argentine government. The report is not signed.

Interview with released political prisoner, Lidia Ester Cabrera de Franco.

Letelier/ Moffitt Assassination Case: Related Foreign Policy Issue.

Uruguayans Disappeared in Argentina.

Uruguayan arrested in Argentina and later freed.

Second meeting with Chief of Staff re. Letelier case.

Kidnapping of Uruguayan political refugees in Argentina.

UNHCR discusses Chilean, Uruguayan refugee matter.

Information from UNHCR on the 26 Uruguayans picked up by the Argentine security forces from late December to early February.

Uruguay and Argentina held responsible for kidnapping and refoulement says the OAS.

Alleged Torture of Argentine Citizens in Paraguay.

Missing Uruguayan children traced to Chile.

This report explains the attempts by numerous Argentine and Brazilian agents to arrest two Argentine women in the Brazilian city of Uruguaiana bordering Argentina. Although the names are crossed out, it is possible to tell from the dates and mentioned places that the cases refer to Cristina Fiori (whose name has not been crossed out towards the end of the document) and Margarita Mengol. Fiori was detained in an operation by several Uruguayan civil police agents and one Argentine police officer on 17th November. While Mengol was arrested on 27th November, before being able to travel to Spain, where she was a national. The report states that the police delegate in Uruguiana confirmed that there was proof that the operation on 17th November was apparently “illegal”. There is no signature.

List of Uruguayans disappeared in Argentina.

Conversation with Argentine Intelligence Source.

(U) Gop explains Montonero deportations, criticism continues.

President Gueiler reportedly claims duress used to obtain gob signature on receipt for deported Argentines.

The Case of the Missing Montoneros.

The Case of the Missing Montoneros.

This document is composed of three parts. The first of which is a note from the Permanent Mission of Uruguay before the Organization of American States (O.E.A.) dated April 1981.The note is sending the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Montevideo a copy of an article written by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights in relation to Case No.4529. The second part is a note dated December 1980 containing the observations of the claimant of Case No.4529 (Celiberti and family). The note transmits a copy of the sworn declaration delivered by the former soldier Hugo García Rivas in Brazil in May 1980. The third part of the note contains the declarations delivered by the soldier Garcías Rivas in São Paulo, Brazil before the NGO Secretariado Internacional de Juristas por Amnistía en Uruguay (International Secretariat of Jurists for Amnesty in Uruguay). In these declarations, García Rivas offered a detailed account of the operation involving the capture of Liliana Celiberti, Universindo Rodríguez, and Lilian’s daughters. After recounting how the operation led to the capture of the Uruguayans in Porto Alegre, García Rivas touched on other topics, including the case of Hugo Pascaretta who was assassinated while being tortured. The document is signed off without a printed name by a representative of the Uruguayan Permanent Mission.