Juicio a la Operación Cóndor: Justicia para los crímenes transnacionales contra los derechos humanos en América del Sur

In May 2016, an Argentine federal court concluded a transcendental trial in which it condemned 15 suspects for having illegally captured and tortured more than 100 victims of Operation Condor, as well as for the crime of illicit association. Operation Condor was the code name given to a secret plan that spread across an entire continent, devised by the South American regimes during the 1970s to eliminate hundreds of leftist activists throughout the region. The Operation Condor trial opened new pathways in terms of human rights and transitional justice owing to its innovative focus on transnational crimes and on holding state agents accountable for human rights violations committed abroad. The article analyses this pioneering trial to start to incorporate to question of crossborder crimes into the academic debate. The study is based on a vast field work comprised of 74 judicial hearings and 76 interviews with survivors, experts, and legal professionals. While borders are becoming evermore porous, academics and professionals can no longer afford to cast aside the theme of judicial accountability for transnational crimes.