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

In The Condor Trials, Francesca Lessa makes a significant new contribution to the now-established genre of Condor studies, inaugurated with the investigative journalism of John Dinges in 2004 and repeatedly documented by numerous subsequent contributions in comparative politics and transitional justice. To the established facts of Operation Condor, the transnational organization that coordinated the foreign operations undertaken by security forces of South American military dictatorships from 1974 to 1980, Lessa brings a trove of new evidence about the mechanics of transnational repression deployed by South American military regimes, as well as a truly novel argument for how the over 45 trials held (and some ongoing) since 1976 have provided a mechanism to advance accountability and undermine military impunity. While earlier studies have established the importance of transnational repression for maintaining military regimes and have documented the enabling actions of the United States, Lessa instead centers South American military, activist,...