Classes with a focus on Latin American history, culture, or literature have long included the subjects of twentieth-century dictatorships. These lessons often make reference to “Operation Condor” or the “Plan Cóndor”. This was the collaboration between regimes in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil with the United States providing what has been called “technical support”. The goal was to suppress opposition to these dictatorships, often through state terror. The results were abduction, torture, and murder.
Students in my classes are sometimes impressed by how little they had learned about these subjects and are particularly impacted by the US’s role. The reasons secondary-school teachers do not include these subjects in their lessons likely range from ignorance to fear of parental reprisals. Either way, information is key and the more facts we have the more we can bring them into the classroom and thus create a space to debate the merits of our own country’s involvement in something that indisputably had grave consequences for many people. As our foreign policy continues to push for intervention in other parts of the world, this debate demands a constant update.
Argentina has, since 1999, been holding court proceedings meant to bring justice to the victims and to issue punishment to the responsible. Today the Spanish newspaper El País includes an article that summarizes the progress up until now. It also emphasizes the important fact that these cases are the first to legally recognize that Operation Condor existed. This reality, which has been left understated until now, has the potential to open the door to further court proceedings, including ones that might include US citizens.
Students in my classes are sometimes impressed by how little they had learned about these subjects and are particularly impacted by the US’s role. The reasons secondary-school teachers do not include these subjects in their lessons likely range from ignorance to fear of parental reprisals. Either way, information is key and the more facts we have the more we can bring them into the classroom and thus create a space to debate the merits of our own country’s involvement in something that indisputably had grave consequences for many people. As our foreign policy continues to push for intervention in other parts of the world, this debate demands a constant update.
Argentina has, since 1999, been holding court proceedings meant to bring justice to the victims and to issue punishment to the responsible. Today the Spanish newspaper El País includes an article that summarizes the progress up until now. It also emphasizes the important fact that these cases are the first to legally recognize that Operation Condor existed. This reality, which has been left understated until now, has the potential to open the door to further court proceedings, including ones that might include US citizens.
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