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The Condor Years: How Pinochet And His Allies Brought Terrorism To Three Continents Paperback – June 1, 2005
| John Dinges (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Throughout the 1970s, six Latin American governments, led by Chile, formed a military alliance called Operation Condor to carry out kidnappings, torture, and political assassinations across three continents. It was an early “war on terror” initially encouraged by the CIA―which later backfired on the United States.
Hailed by Foreign Affairs as “remarkable” and “a major contribution to the historical record,” The Condor Years uncovers the unsettling facts about the secret US relationship with the dictators who created this terrorist organization. Written by award-winning journalist John Dinges and updated to include later developments in the prosecution of Pinochet, the book is a chilling yet dispassionately told history of one of Latin America’s darkest eras. Dinges, himself interrogated in a Chilean torture camp, interviewed participants on both sides and examined thousands of previously secret documents to take the reader inside this underground world of military operatives and diplomats, right-wing spies and left-wing revolutionaries.
“Scrupulous, well-documented.” ―The Washington Post
“Nobody knows what went wrong inside Chile like John Dinges.” ―Seymour Hersh
- Print length332 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe New Press
- Publication dateJune 1, 2005
- Dimensions6.34 x 1.05 x 8.02 inches
- ISBN-109781565849778
- ISBN-13978-1565849778
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President Nixon had decided that an Allende regime was not acceptable to the United States. The President asked the agency to prevent Allende from coming to power or to unseat him.
About the Author
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Product details
- ASIN : 1565849779
- Publisher : The New Press; Reprint edition (June 1, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 332 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781565849778
- ISBN-13 : 978-1565849778
- Item Weight : 15.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.34 x 1.05 x 8.02 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #832,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Paraguayan History
- #19 in Uruguayan History
- #61 in Bolivian History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Investigative reporter, author, correspondent for many years in Latin America, John Dinges received a Masters Degree from Stanford University in Latin American studies, then began freelancing in Chile, writing mainly for The Washington Post, during a six-year period that included the socialist revolution of President Salvador Allende, the violent military coup that overthrew him, and the first five years of the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. In addition to his writing he is a frequent speaker in English and Spanish on investigative journalism, authoritarianism and the functions of an independent press in preserving democracy. Awards include the Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal for Latin American reporting, the DuPont-Columbia gold and silver batons (shared with others at NPR) and the medal "Órden de Bernardo O'Higgins en el Grado de Comendador" conferred by the government of Chile.
He is the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Professor of International Journalism at Columbia University, currently with emeritus status. Previously he worked on the foreign desk of The Washington Post, traveling as a reporter to cover the civil wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. From 1985 to 1996 he worked at National Public Radio as deputy senior foreign editor, managing editor, and editorial director. His first job in journalism was at the Des Moines Register & Tribune in his native State of Iowa.
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John Dinges es periodista investigativo y autor. Todos sus libros están traducidos al español: Operación Cóndor: Una Década de Terrorismo Internacional en el Cono Sur (Ediciones B 2004); Nuestro Hombre en Panama (Lasser 1990); y Asesinato en Washington (con Saul Landau) (Open Road Media 2014). Pasó seis años como corresponsal freelance en Chile, durante el gobierno revolucionario de Salvador Allende, el golpe militar, y la época mas sangrienta de la dictadura militar. Volvió a los Estados Unidos para trabajar en el Washington Post, luego en NPR donde tuvo el puesto de editor general. Ha sido profesor "Godfrey Lowell Cabot" de periodismo internacional en Columbia University desde 1996, ahora emeritus. Es conferencista frecuente en inglés y español en temas como periodismo de investigación, autoritarismo, y libertad de expresión y de prensa. En 2016 recibió la medalla "Órden de Bernardo O'Higgins en el Grado de Comendador" otorgado por la presidenta de Chile Michele Bachelet.
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It now seems inevitable that such hubris and widely spread criminal behavior would end with the destruction of those military dictatorships, but the human cost of all those concentration camps, torture chambers, extra legal killings and general destruction is incalculable.
The author presents and lot first hand evidence to support his ideas and theories.
Living now in Chile I have had conversations with a number of Chileans who remind me of my conversations many years ago with Germans who
had many excuses for what happened. There can be no excuses for what took place in either case. They are not equal except for " on one hand this happened but it was necessary or other things good occurred ( autobahn, pan american highway, etc.)
Top reviews from other countries
The evidence and detail assembled by Dinges has a gruesome fascination of its own and is the result of many years of research. It is all referenced and entirely convincing in its authenticity.
I have a few reservations, however, about the tone and content of the book. The first is the use of acronyms mentioned previously and the second is the slight tendency toward repetition at times, but given the complicated nature of the story this is, perhaps, no bad thing. I am a little disturbed by the partisan nature of the book. The actions of the various right-wing dictators, especially Pinochet, Stroessner of Paraguay and Videla of Argentina come in correctly for sustained criticism for the extra-judicial killings and torture that they inflicted on their citizens. Some of the victims were not violent or terrorists but simply political activists. This is well and good, but I do not see a single word of censure for the Marxist terrorists and plotters who killed many innocent people. In the case of Argentina, under Isabelita Peron, the actions of terrorists make the country virtually ungovernable. I guess we are used to the ‘Right’ receiving a worse press than the ‘Left’, after all Castro of Cuba killed and tortured just about the same number of people as Pinochet but how many wear tee-shirts with pictures of Pinochet on them. Nevertheless, an excellent book and well worth reading.
He traces the internationalisation of the repression in Latin America's Southern Cone after 1973,with Project Condor reaching out from Chile into Argentina,Uruguay,Paraguay and,for a time Brazil and even Peru."Subversives" were traded across borders-few survived.Then Condor went global,with the 1976 killing of Letelier in Washington,and plans for actions in Europe(called off after they were leaked) and even an abortive attempt to kill Ed Koch,later mayor of New York.
After the return to democracy in the 1980s,the new civilian givernments were hampered by laws that gave retrospective amnesties to many-not all-human rights violators.Bits and bobs of information dribbled out.
And then came the arrest of Pinochet in London.As a result the Clinton Administration released extensive archival material from the CIA and State Department describing the structure and activities of the Condor nations.Much of this material ended up being used in fresh trials of the opressors of the 1970s-80s.Because of the transnational structure of Condor,many of these repressors could now be charged with crimes against humanity using the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1946-47.Many of those killers and torturers had to call off their hopes for a relaxing retirement and more than a few have been tried and convicted for their part in the brutalities of the 1970s-80s.
Well worth reading if you're interested in international or human rights law,or Latin American history.






