Operation Condor
The film is based on the story of Operation Condor
Operation Condor was a campaign of political repression and state terrorism involving intelligence operations and the assassination of opposition figures. It began in 1968 and was officially implemented in 1975 by right-wing dictatorships in the Southern Cone of South America. The program was aimed at eliminating communism or Soviet influence and suppressing active or potential opposition movements against the governments participating in this project.
Due to its secret nature, there are no precise figures on the number of deaths directly resulting from Operation Condor. Some estimates indicate at least 60,000 deaths due to condor operations, and perhaps more. The list of victims includes leftist dissidents, trade and peasant union leaders, priests, nuns, students, teachers, intellectuals, and individuals suspected of joining the armed rebellion.
The main countries involved in Operation Condor were Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. The United States government provided technical support and military assistance to participants until at least 1978, then resumed support after the election of Republican Ronald Reagan as President of the United States in 1981. This support was often facilitated through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Ecuador and Peru later joined the process but played marginal roles. These efforts, such as Operation Charlie, helped local juntas suppress communism.
Chile:
When Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 in response to a request by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón for his extradition to Spain, additional information emerged regarding Operation Condor. One of the lawyers who demanded his extradition claimed that there was an attempt on the life of Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party. It was also reported that Pinochet met the Italian neo-fascist terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie during Francisco Franco's funeral in Madrid in 1975 and arranged Altamirano's murder. However, the plan failed.
Ultimately, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia established a legal precedent for the crime of “permanent kidnapping.” Due to the inability to find the bodies of kidnapped or presumed murdered victims, Juan assumed that the kidnapping was continuing rather than having occurred a long time ago. This legal interpretation allowed perpetrators to benefit from protection under a 1978 amnesty or under Chilean statutes of limitations.
In November 2015, the Chilean government admitted that Pablo Neruda may have been killed by members of the Pinochet regime.
General Carlos Prats:
General Carlos Prats and his wife, Sofia Cuthbert, were killed in a car bomb explosion on September 30, 1974, in Buenos Aires, where they lived in exile. The responsibility for this incident was attributed to the Chilean National Intelligence Directorate. In Chile, Judge Alejandro Solis concluded the trial of Pinochet in January 2005 after the Chilean Supreme Court rejected his request to lift Pinochet's judicial immunity (as the head of state). In Chile, leaders of the National Intelligence Directorate were accused of carrying out this assassination, including Manuel Contreras, the former operations chief, retired General Raul Iturriaga, his brother Roger Iturriaga, former Colonel Pedro Espinoza Bravo, and Jose Zara. In Argentina, an agent of the National Intelligence Directorate, Enrique Arancibia Clavel, was convicted of murder.
Bernardo Leighton:
Bernardo Leighton and his wife suffered severe injuries in a failed assassination attempt on October 6, 1975, after settling in exile in Italy. The pistol attack left Bernardo Leighton seriously wounded and his wife, Anita Frei, permanently disabled. According to declassified documents in the National Security Archive and Italian prosecutor Giovanni Salvi, who led the trial of Manuel Contreras, Stefano Delle Chiaie met Michael Townley and Virgilio Paz Romero in Madrid in 1975 to plan the assassination of Bernardo Leighton with the assistance of Francisco Franco's secret police. In 1999, National Security Council Secretary, Glenn T. Davis, announced that declassified documents proved the responsibility of Pinochet's government for the attempted assassination of Bernardo Leighton, as well as Orlando Letelier and General Carlos Prats, on October 6, 1975.