The article covers the content of recently declassified US government documents that make extensive reference to Operation Condor. In the words of the declassified documents Operation Condor (instigated by Pinochet) was the name "in code for the exchange and storage of intelligence information concerning the so called 'leftists', communists and Marxists, which has recently [1976] established cooperation between South American intelligence services to eliminate terrorist activities in the area." (Please note: I am translating back into English from a Spanish translation of the original.) A local journalist has correclty called it the "MERCOSUR of murder."
The documents cite examples of how this coordination might work. If a person "tied to terrorism" is located in Europe, "a special team from Operation Condor will be sent to localize and monitor the objective." Then "special teams will use false documents from member countries of Operation condor, which can be made up of people from one or various of the countries." There followed a large, blacked out area in the declassified document, wherein the creation of "special teams" for future actions is mentioned. France and Portugal in particular are identified as third countries where Operation Condor actions were to take place.
The article closes with the following paragraphs, under the heading "New Doctrines" (translation is mine):
It is surprising and significant that the secrecy be lifted from this document [by the US government], without erasing the numerous references to Operation Condor....
It is impossible to not link this fact to the new policy of the US towards the region, which aims in a rather explicit manner at "uncovering" the crimes of dictators, and insisting on recognition of the armed forces' authorship. [This is taking place] in the framework of a [US] strategy to weaken the institutions whose "antisubversive" actions were supported and even directed by the US during the Cold War, but in the new "uni-polar" world become a bothersome instance of local power, and large expenditures of public finds, which compromises sacrosanct fiscal equilibrium.
Such a strategy does not, of course, mean foregoing the use of repressive military resources in Latin America, rather it prefigures the existence of national armed forces less numerous and more subordinate to Pentagon "coordination", with hypothetical conflict turning on new enemies such as "narcoterrorists."
[End translation]
This is very interesting. For years I've been wondering what post-Cold War US political/military strategy in the region would be. What we've seen is confusion, incompetence, with the only unifying threads being free trade and the drug war, though even these sometimes work at cross purposes (for example on the US-Mexico border: free traders want it open and flowing; drug warriors want it closed up tight).
I wouldn't overstate the efficacy or coherency of US policy (imperialism), but the US does benefit from (realtively) weakened, embarrassed thugs. For example, the DEA/US Embassy in La Paz allowed a plane loaded with 4+ tons of cocaine to leave Bolivia in 1995, knowing that it would make the government more pliant to its demands regarding how to run the drug war.
Tom