Terror de Estado e Soberania: Um Relato sobre a Operação Condor

Abstract

This work studies the political, social and legal aspects of Operation Condor, an international integration campaign among the dictatorships of the Southern Cone, which aimed to promote information exchange and the systematic persecution of political militants against the dictatorships in the treaty’s member states. The article aims to identify the political, social and legal consequences for these states, as well as to identify the crimes committed by the dictatorships. It is based on bibliographical research into Operation Condor, as well as a document analysis of the international and internal legislation of the countries involved in the treaty. It concludes that Operation Condor relativized the member states’ sovereignty, creating an illegal persecution bloc legitimized for the execution of reasons of state. The article also notes that Operation Condor’s most widely used crime was “forced disappearance”, a hallmark of the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships.