Since the end of Operation Condor in 1989, an important observation is apparent: the countries previously under right-wing dictatorships have exhibited a left-wing rebound in a phenomenon of political equilibrium, explained in the following examples.
Chilean Anti-Neoliberalism Protests
Although the Chilean economy grew under the neoliberal policies of Pinochet, much of its profits went to the private sector, placing 45% of Chileans below the poverty line in 1974 alone. The 2019 Chile anti-Neoliberal protests occurred against moderate rightist President Sebastián Piñera due to the aforementioned consequences, resulting in a 2021 Constitutional Convention and the election of current left-wing President Gabriel Boric. The legacy of the Pinochet economy pervades despite his death in 2006.
[Credit: BBC]
Evo Morales of Bolivia
The right-wing military rule of Hugo Banzer ended in 1978, and a rapid left-wing resurgence
followed. Banzer returned to office in 1997 until he resigned in 2001.
Former coca union activist and leader of Movement for Socialism (MAS in Spanish) Evo Morales was
elected president of Bolivia in 2006 and began implementing socialist policies that initialized
industrialization and decreased Bolivia's poverty by 42%.
[Chile & Bolivia Image Credit: BBC]
The Morales administration implemented a new constitution in 2009 that implemented a limit of two five-year terms and made Bolivia a secular state. However, Morales was accused by critics in 2019 of rigging the Bolivian general election for a fourth term, so he was ousted in a coup and replaced by Jeanine Áñez, a right-wing interim president. Áñez was replaced by Luis Acre, a member of MAS, in 2020, showing Bolivia's left-wing rebound from its right-wing legacy of Operation Condor.
To me, being leftist means fighting against injustice and inequality but, most of all, we want to live well.
- Evo Morales, former President of Bolivia
Interview with João Pina, Portuguese photographer focused on Operation Condor and author of Condor
Missing Children In Argentina
The Dirty War in Argentina resulted in nearly 500 children being orphaned and deposed to other families. Among the Desaparecidos were children born to pregnant women who were kept alive just long enough to give birth, then murdered. These events haunted the minds of thousands of Argentines who had their families torn apart. They heard rumors of detention centers in which their friends and family were being raped and tortured. Much to their demise, the Dirty War was one of the most tragic yet forgotten moments of Argentine history.
Archives of Terror
The archives of terror were discovered by a judge in Paraguay in 1992 and were essentially a collection of documents that accounted for tens of thousands of the victims of Latin American governments in cooperation with the United States through Operation Condor. The documents weighed over 4 tons. There were 50,000 people murdered, 30,000 disappeared and 400,000 imprisoned.
