Introduction

Abstract

Three coups d’état, staged respectively in Uruguay and Chile in 1973 and in Argentina in 1976, ushered in a period of military dictatorship in the region, unleashing a violent repression that was unprecedented in the history of these three countries. The main goal of these dictatorships was the annihilation of subversion and communism; to achieve that, these regimes coordinated their efforts in a region-wide repressive strategy that came to be known as the “Plan Condor.” In all three countries, the victims targeted by repressive action were guerrilla members, unarmed leftist activists, and participants in social movements who had been involved in the process of political radicalization experienced by these societies in the years leading up to the coups. But they were not the only victims, as all citizens were equally deprived of their civil and political rights, and terror spread across all spheres of private and public life.¹