Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America [Hardcover]

Patrice J. McSherry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2005

This powerful study makes a compelling case about the key U.S. role in state terrorism in Latin America during the Cold War. Long hidden from public view, Operation Condor was a military network created in the 1970s to eliminate political opponents of Latin American regimes. Its key members were the anticommunist dictatorships of Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil, later joined by Peru and Ecuador, with covert support from the U.S. government. Drawing on a wealth of testimonies, declassified files, and Latin American primary sources, J. Patrice McSherry examines Operation Condor from numerous vantage points: its secret structures, intelligence networks, covert operations against dissidents, political assassinations worldwide, commanders and operatives, links to the Pentagon and the CIA, and extension to Central America in the 1980s. The author convincingly shows how, using extralegal and terrorist methods, Operation Condor hunted down, seized, and executed political opponents across borders. McSherry argues that Condor functioned within, or parallel to, the structures of the larger inter-American military system led by the United States, and that declassified U.S. documents make clear that U.S. security officers saw Condor as a legitimate and useful 'counterterror' organization. Revealing new details of Condor operations and fresh evidence of links to the U.S. security establishment, this controversial work offers an original analysis of the use of secret, parallel armies in Western counterinsurgency strategies. It will be a clarion call to all readers to consider the long-term consequences of clandestine operations in the name of 'democracy.'

Editorial Reviews

Review

In this remarkable example of investigative scholarship, J. Patrice McSherry systematically and compellingly explains the logic of the emergence of Operation Condor and details the actors, phases, activities and consequences of this regional anticommunist network. . . . A magnificent example of meticulous secondary and primary research, powerful writing, and responsible activism. . . . McSherry's book serves as a damning testimony of the horrors of the security-focused parallel state and a warning to citizens, scholars, journalists, politicians, and democratic activists to resist the logic of the security parallel state and demand transparency and accountability. (Bowman, Kirk New Political Science )

[McSherry] has achieved scholarly excellence. . . . Readers will learn a great deal about Condor that was not identified and developed in other scholarly or journalistic accounts. . . . Sources have been expertly utilized. . . . A must-read in U.S. departments of international relations, political science, and in programs of Latin American Studies. . . . This study is ground-breaking in its scholarly integration of primary data and social science theory. (Martha Huggins )

This important book is must-reading for graduate students and public policy officials interested in Central and Latin America. It is also a significant contribution to an understanding of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War with respect to international state terrorism. Highly recommended. (Choice )

Eloquently traces the roots of Operation Condor in the 1970s to a broad policy of anticommunism after World War II. . . . Contributes significantly to studies of the Cold War. . . . McSherry defines Condor as part of a broad and systematic trans-American policy actively pursued by the United States under the banner of anticommunism. Her work goes beyond other studies that have tended to reduce U.S. Cold War policies in Latin America to specific episodes. . . . McSherry's concept of the parallel state is also a provocative invitation to re-examine the relationship between the state and civil society in modern Latin America. (American Historical Review )

McSherry's book makes a number of important contributions to our understanding of Operation Condor. First, she adds a wealth of factual information to the familiar, if hazy, outline of what is already known about Condor, drawing on an impressive range of sources. . . . Her skillful use of this fragmentary evidence enables her to draw compelling conclusions and could serve as a model for research into the complex and difficult field of secret intelligence operations. (Journal Of Third World Studies )

McSherry is uniquely qualified to write this book. . . . [It is] a very important contribution to our knowledge of international state terrorism and its connection to U.S. foreign policy in the era of the cold war. (Loveman, Brian )

J. Patrice McSherry’s book occupies a central place in this new literature [documenting the history of long-known abuses in Latin America] as it successfully analyzes the extent of U.S. involvement in the region and the connections between U.S. Cold War policies and some of the most egregious human rights abuses that took place in the region. . . . McSherry’s careful analysis of newly declassified documents allows her to unveil the role that the U.S. played in aiding and abetting criminal regimes to conduct extraterritorial operations to kill their 'enemies' throughout the globe. (Logos )

Provides a conceptual framework that brings out the formal nature of Operation Condor and South American repression more generally. . . . The book’s attention to detail is impressive. (Greg Weeks )

Extending over six decades, this study highlights the importance of historical memory. . . . A major strength of this book is precisely its global context and the comparative angle of its analysis, well beyond the scope of Latin America. (The Americas )

J. Patrice McSherry has deftly utilised [newly available] resources in an analysis that combines a conceptual framework with a compelling account of repression, suffering and death. McSherry's primary theoretical thrust is that counterinsurgency fundamentally changed the relationship between state and society. . . . McSherry's analysis should be viewed not only as a discussion of the past, but also as a cautionary tale for the present and future. (Journal Of Latin American Studies )

Predatory States explains in well-documented detail how the Condor system worked, how the United States participated (especially through the CIA), and how the countries involved worked to keep their activities secret. (Latin American Politics And Society )

Provide[s] important new details on the working of the system of internal repression. (International Affairs )

The reasons for intervention, subversion, terror, and repression are not obscure. They are summarized accurately by Patrice McSherry in the most careful scholarly study of Operation Condor, the international terrorist operation established with U.S. backing in Pinochet’s Chile. (Chomsky, Noam Monthly Review )

An important and timely read. It provides a unique and dark historical perspective on political 'swings' in Latin America, and the story has particular significance and political weight today as Latin America once again garners international attention and anxiety from its perceived 'turn to the left.' The exhaustive documentation of US covert and extra-legal involvement in the manipulation and control of Latin American political and social transitions, all in the name of ‘security,’ is presented with conviction and courage, leaving the reader with a simple and palpable warning about the consequences and legacies of 'anti-subversive' fervour, the pursuit of militaristic 'solutions' and contemporary policies of global interventionism. (Bulletin Of Latin American Research )

McSherry provides direct answers to many of the most important questions surrounding US involvement in death squad operations overseas during the Cold War. . . . [She] has assembled a wealth of information that firmly establishes the central role of the US government in the use of paramilitary death squads as a tool of counterinsurgency strategy in the Cold War. (The Salvador Option )

About the Author

J. Patrice McSherry is professor of political science and director of the Latin American & Caribbean Studies Program at Long Island University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (June 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742536866
• ISBN-13: 978-0742536869
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,432,012 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars State Terror in the Americas, March 12, 2006

By 

Curtis Skinner (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America (Paperback)

This well-written book meticulously documents the development and operation of an appalling transnational organization of state terror to persecute leftists and other real or imagained opponents of the South American military regimes during the 1970's. Patrice McSherry's research is rigorously documented and lays bare the central role the United States played in supporting Operation Condor and nurturing the Latin American "national security state." This book will be very useful for any reader interested in Latin American politics and society and in United States relations with the rest of the Americas. I highly recommend "Predatory States."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding why they hate Uncle Sam south of the border, December 20, 2005

By 

Jerry Meldon (Hopkinton, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America (Paperback)

This is a must read, especially if you're still puzzled by seemingly unanimous worldwide contempt for Washington. With lucid prose, thorough documentation and gory detail, historian McSherry leads her reader to the inescapable conclusion that, in Latin America at least, the U.S. government rarely lets respect for human rights get in the way of self-interest. As the Reagan team reassured the generalissimos even before its electoral victory, the early days of the Jimmy Carter presidency (1976-1980) would be an unusual exception. Even before Carter came to Washington, the Nixon and Ford administrations helped create the Chilean monster that was the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, which would quickly exterminate 3,000 of its perceived enemies. And with a helping hand from the CIA and encouragement from Henry Kissinger, Pinochet would partner with neighboring caudillos in Operation Condor, a kidnapping and assassination collaborative that would target the dictators' civilian opponents abroad. All of which is common knowledge among the supposedly ignorant masses, the myriad victims of IMF and WTO austerity regimens south of the Border. It's high time norteamericanos achieved comparable historical literacy. "Predatory States" is a good place to jump start the process.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars when history repeats itself..., January 11, 2006

By 

Daniel Velasquez (New York, USA.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America (Paperback)

Among the reason why I liked "Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America" by J. Patrice McSherry is the fact that she kept relevant the events that took place in Lating America more than 20 year ago by comparing them to current ones like the just "revealed brutal methods and secret operations" (xxi) used by the United States to fight terrorism worldwide.

On the first chapter the author successfully explains what led Latin American countries into the bloody repression by military dictatorships: "the distribution of power and wealth in human society, who gets what, how, and why." (6)

It is also interesting the fact that this books shows how repression spread from South America to Central America. Repression in Central America was not just the result of government fights against guerrillas, military governments wanted to consolidate their power.

One more thing that made this book worth reading was the testimonies the author gathered. Having witness, victims, and survivors speak about their experience adds value to the research done in this book.