The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America

Stories of transnational terror and justice illuminate the past and present of South America’s struggles for human rights. Through the voices of survivors, human rights activists, judicial actors, and experts, The Condor Trials unravels the secrets of transnational repression masterminded by South American dictators between 1969 and 1981. Under Operation Condor, the regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay closely monitored hundreds of exiles and kidnapped, tortured, murdered, or forcibly returned them to their countries of origin. This cross-border network designed to silence opposition in exile transformed South America into a borderless zone of terror and impunity. Francesca Lessa shows how, gradually, transnational networks of activists materialized and effectively transcended national borders to achieve justice for the victims of these horrors. Based on extensive fieldwork, archival research, trial ethnography, and over 100 interviews, The Condor Trials explores South America’s past and present and sheds light on ongoing struggles for justice as its societies come to terms with the unparalleled atrocities of their not-so-distant pasts.

About the Author :
Francesca Lessa is a lecturer in Latin American studies and development at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay and the honorary president of the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu (Uruguay). The Condor Trials received the 2023 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America.

Review :
“[A] vital two-part study. . . . [Lessa’s] painstaking work on Plan Condor and Latin America’s state criminality is both admirable and important.”—Miranda France, Times Literary Supplement “By discussing the mobilization of justice seekers, Lessa highlights the importance of individual activism in the face of authoritarianism in the past, but also in the present.”—Caterina Preda, Journal of Development Studies “Accessible despite its legal components, the book sheds light on the struggle for justice and human rights in South America. As our reviewer rightly praises, Lessa usefully anchors the book in its Latin American context, and away from historiographic preoccupations with the US role.”—Mariana Vieira, International Affairs Blog “This book is a homage to the remarkable efforts of many individuals outraged by these crimes to bring the perpetrators to justice.”—Gavin O’Toole, Latin American Review of Books “The level of detail Lessa provides . . . is, simply put, astounding. And her especially insightful treatment of justice seekers . . . who spearheaded innovative legal strategies to hold perpetrators accountable speaks to the text’s deeper stakes.”—Max Counter, Journal of Latin American Geography “The sophistication of Lessa’s interdisciplinary method shines through in the book’s detailed content and nuanced arguments.”—Alison J. Bruey, H-Net Network on Latin American History Honorable Mention received for the Bryce Wood Book Award, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association Winner of the 2023 Juan E. Méndez Book Award for Human Rights in Latin America, sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute The Spanish translation of The Condor Trials was awarded the 2024 Premio Iberoamericano Book Award by LASA. The Spanish translation of The Condor Trials received an honorable mention for the Best Book Award of the Recent History and Memory Section of the Latin American Studies Association “Lessa’s exploration of transnational repression in 1970s South America could not be more current in these days of resurgent authoritarianism. Her analysis of the Condor period is groundbreaking and documents both the human rights crimes and the efforts of international ‘justice seekers’ to breach—eventually—the dictatorships’s impunity.”—John Dinges, author of Hunting Enemies Abroad “There is no other book that combines a decade of research on Operation Condor and transnational repression by the South American military regimes with synthesis of the literature on efforts to achieve accountability for human rights violations and analysis of the prosecutions in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Italy.”—Brian Loveman, San Diego State University “This gripping account of Operation Condor breaks important new ground in our understanding of complex justice processes for grave human rights violations. Lessa’s analysis of ‘justice seekers’ highlights the central role of victims in transitional and transnational justice processes. Most importantly, she centers the deeply moving stories of the victims of Operation Condor, whose lives were forever altered by transnational state terror.”—Jo-Marie Burt, George Mason University