Author: Giuseppe Gagliano – 10/05/2025
DINA AND OPERATION CONDOR: THE INTERNATIONAL OF REPRESSION BETWEEN CHILE AND THE RÍO DE LA PLATA (1973–1980)
From Pinochet’s Torture Centers to the Transnational Network of Terror: History, Complicity, and Memory of South America’s Repressive Coordination during the Cold War
Giuseppe Gagliano, CESTUDEC – Centro studi strategici Carlo de Cristoforis
Abstract – This article examines the 1973 Chilean coup d’état and the establishment of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), a key instrument of Augusto Pinochet’s repressive regime. The coup, marked by the bombing of La Moneda and the transformation of the National Stadium into a detention center, initiated a systematic campaign of terror against political opponents. The DINA, created in January 1974, operated as a secret police force, employing torture, disappearances, and extrajudicial killings to suppress dissent. Its transnational reach laid the groundwork for the Plan Condor, a coordinated effort among South American dictatorships to eliminate leftist opposition across borders. Supported by the United States, the DINA and Plan Condor became models of authoritarian repression, leaving a lasting legacy of human rights abuses in Latin America.
Keywords: Chile, Pinochet, Plan Condor, Latin America, Cold War
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Giuseppe Gagliano – In 2011 he founded the international network Cestudec (Centro studi strategici Carlo de Cristoforis) based in Como, with the aim of studying the conflictual dynamics of international relations from a realistic perspective, placing emphasis on the dimension of intelligence and geopolitics in the light of the reflections of Christian Harbulot, founder and director of the School of Economic Warfare (EGE). Gagliano has published four essays in French on economic warfare and ten essays in Italian on geopolitics.