Victims of Operation Condor were persecuted in 13 countries: eight in Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay), four in Europe (France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal), and the USA. Nevertheless, most operations were perpetrated within a single country, Argentina, where 70% of the crimes were committed. Only 2% of the victims were targeted outside of South America.
Due to Condor’s top secret nature, there are no official lists of victims. However, recent research has indicated that there must have been at least 805 victims of transnational repression in South America between August 1969 and February 1981. The victims came from diverse backgrounds: most of them (40%) were political and social activists; 36% were members of revolutionary armed groups; 13% did not have any affiliation; and 5% were individuals with official refugee status.
The Condor founding agreement was signed by military intelligence representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay on 28th November 1975. This is the formal start date of Operation Condor. However, these countries had previously collaborated in transnational repression in more informal and ad hoc ways at least since 1969. Operation Condor, as a multilateral forum for transnational repression, stopped working in late 1978, although informal and bilateral operations continued until February 1981.
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay were the five countries that officially signed the agreement creating Operation Condor at its founding meeting, held in Santiago, Chile, between late November and early December 1975. Brazil joined in mid-1976, whilst Peru and Ecuador did so between late 1977 and early 1978.
Operation Condor was a secret network of transnational repression that was formally set up in late 1975 to facilitate the crossborder repression of political opponents and dissidents living in exile, primarily in South America but also beyond.
Confidential Note 001/77, dated 21 January 1977, sent from the Embassy of Uruguay in the United States (URUWASHI) to the State Department of the United States, expressing the withdrawal of the proposed appointments of Colonel Fons and Major Gavazzo to positions to be held in that country.
Location: Department of the Historical and Diplomatic Archive – Section: Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in the United States / Series: Confidential Notes / Year 1977 / Box 7 / Folder 5.
Telex (Transcription) C265 and C266, dated 12 December 1975, sent from the Embassy of Uruguay in the United States (URUWASHI) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DIPLOMACY) reporting on the meetings that Senator Wilson Ferreira Aldunate had requested with government authorities.
Location: Department of the Historical and Diplomatic Archive – Section: Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in the United States / Series: Ciphered Telex Received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Year 1975 / Box 52 / Folder 4.
Telex A 120, dated 1 August 1979, sent from the Uruguayan Embassy in Chile (URUSANTI) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DIPLOMACY) informing the dissemination of an allegation regarding the abduction and subsequent re-appearance in the city of Valparaíso of the children Anatole and “Lucía” Victoria Julien Grisonas.
Location: Department of the Historical and Diplomatic Archive – Section: Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in Chile / Series: Telex / Year 1979 / Box 19 / Folder 9.
Note N° 74/1972, dated 26 January 1972, sent from the Uruguayan Embassy in Chile to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr José A. Mora Otero, expressing the need to appoint Military, Naval, and Air Attachés before the Government of Chile, considering the arrival in that country of Uruguayan citizens involved in subversive activities.
Location: Department of the Historical and Diplomatic Archive – Section: Embassy of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in Chile / Series: Confidential Documents / Year 1972 / Box 77 / Folder 9.
Memorandum, dated 2 July 1976, regarding the conduct to be undertaken in the context of “the Venezuela case” – the possible actions to be implemented and the analysis of the repercussions that each of them could imply for Uruguay from an international relations perspective. This document relates to the abduction of the Uruguayan citizen Elena Quinteros from the grounds of the Venezuelan Embassy in Montevideo on June 28, 1976.
There is a more legible copy of this document, although it is missing a page.
