Condor: Axis of Evil

Operation Condor was a joint effort by military dictatorships in South America in the nineteen-seventies and eighties to counteract political opponents. In this scheme, Pinochet’s Chile, Stroessner’s Paraguay and Videla’s Argentina were supported by the United States, the CIA and Interpol. Director Rodrigo Vazquez speaks with survivors and victims’ relatives, but also with the man who was considered the leader of Operation Condor, Manuel Contreras, who headed Chile’s secret service, DINA. He denies the existence of Condor, but is proud of the fact that he waged the ‘war on terrorism’ on behalf of the United States for twenty-eight years. Incorporating archive footage and interviews, Vazquez tells a complicated story in which South American dictatorships, then and now, are linked to the continuous influence of the United States, with a central role for Henry Kissinger. The filmmaker leafs through a missing person’s newspaper-clipping file, he visits former torture rooms with ex-prisoners and follows a militant Paraguayan human rights lawyer who tries to disclose the abuses of the dictatorship. He also demonstrates that, even today, many citizens are reluctant to talk about the old regimes – while the three dictators are still going about freely.