Condor Years

A “compelling and shocking account” of a brutal campaign of repression in Latin America, based on interviews and previously secret documents (The Miami Herald).   Throughout the 1970s, six Latin American governments, led by Chile, formed a military alliance called Operation Condor to carry out kidnappings, torture, and political assassinations across three continents. It was an early “war on terror” initially encouraged by the CIA—which later backfired on the United States.   Hailed by Foreign Affairs as “remarkable” and “a major contribution to the historical record,” The Condor Years uncovers the unsettling facts about the secret US relationship with the dictators who created this terrorist organization. Written by award-winning journalist John Dinges and updated to include later developments in the prosecution of Pinochet, the book is a chilling yet dispassionately told history of one of Latin America’s darkest eras. Dinges, himself interrogated in a Chilean torture camp, interviewed participants on both sides and examined thousands of previously secret documents to take the reader inside this underground world of military operatives and diplomats, right-wing spies and left-wing revolutionaries.   “Scrupulous, well-documented.” —The Washington Post   “Nobody knows what went wrong inside Chile like John Dinges.” —Seymour Hersh

Praise for The Condor Years:“Scrupulous, well-documented and indignant.”—The Washington Post “Goes a long way toward bringing the truths of that dark time into the light.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Touch[es] directly upon issues at the center of today’s debate over U.S. foreign policy—like secrecy in the name of national security.”—The Nation

John Dinges, former managing editor of NPR News and Latin American special correspondent for the Washington Post, is the author of Our Man in Panama. He teaches journalism at Columbia University and lives in New York City and Washington, D.C.