The meeting which established Operation Condor took place at the end of November 1975 in Santiago (Chile). The invitations were sent by Manuel Contreras, the Head of the Chilean Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (Directorate of National Intelligence, DINA). One of these invitations was recovered from the Paraguayan Archives of Terror.
The invitation letter lays out the rationale and the proposal for the meeting. One part of the letter explains that “to allow for the exchange of information, the following actions are proposed for the consideration of the honorary delegates, which entail an Office for Coordination and Security”.
The heads of the delegations were as follows: the Argentine Navy Captain Jorge Casas; Major Carlos Mena from the Bolivian State Intelligence Service, the Head of the Chilean DINA, Colonel Manuel Contreras; the Uruguayan Colonel José A. Fons, of the Defence Information Service; and the Paraguayan Colonel and Head of Intelligence of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Benito Guanes Serrano. A Brazilian delegation also participated under an observer status.
The closing minutes of this meeting- with the agreements that had been reached- could be recovered. It is now held at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights’ Archive in Santiago (Chile).