Authoritarian regimes -ideologically inspired by the National Security Doctrine- swept across the length and breadth of South America in the geopolitical context of the Cold War. The growing mobilisation of trade unions, student unions, and peasant movements with demands for better living and working conditions, confronted conservative forces and violent parapolice and paramilitary groups.

On 28th November 1975, representatives of the regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Santiago (Chile), where they established the so-called “Condor System” or Operation Condor. Operation Condor reproduced the same range of human rights violations carried out by dictatorships within their borders but strengthening transnational clandestine actions to commit the crimes.

The countries which had participated in Operation Condor’s repressive coordination eventually returned to democracy. The democratic transition reinvigorated the demands for answers regarding the crimes against humanity committed under dictatorship. Today, the search for truth and justice continues for the crimes that the repressive forces committed against individuals and groups and the alliances that the totalitarian governments formed with businesses and powerful actors to strengthen their corruption.