Coming Out of the Dark: Achieving Justice for Victims of Human Rights Violations by South American Military Regimes

Abstract

The military regimes of the countries of the Southern Cone of South America cooperated under Operation Condor to eradicate all political opposition throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The military leaders of these regimes are only now being brought to justice for their crimes, which include widespread killing and "disappearances" of political opponents and, in Argentina, the stealing of babies born to doomed political dissidents. It is only in the last decade that these crimes have been brought to light so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice and nations deeply wounded can begin to heal.