Customer Reviews

Predatory States: Operation Condor and Covert War in Latin America

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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."

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.

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.

My sister and I read this book and were not only impressed with McSherry's clean and highly readable writing style but her detective work and synthesis of so many newly released files allows the reader to absorb and remember so much of this truly astonishing Condor story. We were both surprised at how much we were able to remember when talking to each other on the phone about the 6 Condor countries and their strange brutal training from the C.I.A. and ex-Nazis. The book arcs back to World War II and then brings the reader to the 1970s and Condor. Chapter 2 and 3 are really stunning.

The author seems to have started with the theory that the US is to blame, then searched for evidence to validate her theory.

But what she calls US involvement or support isn't proven by the documents she references. To say that the US State Department was involved is inaccurate. Her referenced documets show US KNOWLEDGE of some portions. They also show US requests for more information about certain people. They don't show knowledge or support.