The Guardian

European spies sought lessons from dictators’ brutal ‘Operation Condor’

CIA files show intelligence services wanted to learn from South America’s 1970s campaign of terror against leftwing subversion
Pictures of some of the thousands killed in Chile during Operation Condor, a top-secret program among South American dictatorships. Photograph: Victor Rojas/AFP/Getty Images

British, West German and French intelligence agencies sought advice from South America’s bloody 1970s dictatorships on how to combat leftwing “subversion”, according to a newly declassified CIA document.

The European intelligence services wanted to learn about “Operation Condor”, a secret programme in which the dictatorships of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador conspired to kidnap and assassinate members of leftwing guerrilla groups in each other’s territories.

Exactly how many people died as

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