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Official secret documents from Chile prove the existence of Operation Condor

In El Pais, No. 1140
Jueves 17 junio 1999

EFE, Santiago -- Official document from the Chilean Exterior Relations Ministry, once classified secret and reserved, made known yesterday by a newspaper, prove the existence of Operation Condor, that, according to human rights organizations, was responsible of the extermination of thousands of civilians in South America. The daily La Nacion reproduces documents establishing the decision to use the ministry's structure to carry out intellugence (espionage) and security tasks against opponents of the chilean military dictatorship(1973-1990). The daily publishes the closure act of the I Interamerican Reunion on Military Intelligence, that took place in Chile on November 25, 1975, attended by delegates of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, during which Operation Condor was officialized, integrated also by Brazil.

What came to be known as the international terrorist, was the basis for the genocide, torture and terrorism accusations of Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon against Augusto Pinochet, leading to the general's detention on october 16, 1998.

The coordination among the secret services of Chile, Argentina, Brasil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay meant the death of 200 chileans detained in the neighboring countries and of thosands thoughout Latin America, according to the data discovered by Paraguay in the files that came to be known as the Archives of Terror.

The Reunion's Act

The act establishing the constitution of the reunion reveals how the name of the plan emerged, establishing thet the agency was to be named Condor and unanimously approved "in confoormity to the motion presented by the Uruguay delegation and in homage to the host country" (the condor appears in Chile's national emblem). In item 8 the documet establishes that "the inclusion of any other country within the Condor system must have the total approval of all the participant countries in the I Conference". Item 1, reproduced in the daily, recommends that the intelligence (espionage) organisms of the participant countries "interchambe subversive information, opening their own or new kardex (folders) on all anteceding data of the respective services".

The information also mentions the "formation of a coordinating office, with the purpose of providing all anteceding information of persons or organizations connected with subversion" and recommend the use of cryptographics for all communications. >

According to the information established to date, Operation Condor was created by the DINA, secret police agency of the chilean military regime, thus proving, as stated by human rights organizations, the direct responsability of general Augusto Pinochet. This coordination of police services had its debut during the so called Colombo Operation in 1974, which was launched to cover up for the murder of 119 opponents in Chile: their corpses were made to appear in Argentina and their deaths were attributed to a supposed confrontation between factions.