During Nixon's, and later the Ford Presidency, a covert operation to assassinate South American leaders was dubbed Operation Condor. Widespread claims that Bush was in on a coup/assassination attempt on Hugo Chavez leads to a renewed interest in what could be in the works to influence South American political directions. Here is a New York Times 2001 story on that topic.
The New York Times, 6.3.01
New Files Tie U.S. to Deaths of Latin Leftists in 1970's. By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON, March 5 - A recently declassified State Department document shows that Latin American officers involved in Operation Condor, the joint effort in the 1970's by right-wing governments to crush left-wing opposition, used an American communications installation to share intelligence.
A cable to the State Department in 1978 from the United States ambassador to Paraguay at the time, Robert E. White, quoted the chief of staff to the dictator Alfredo Stroessner as saying an American installation in the Canal Zone was "employed to coordinate intelligence information" among South America countries. "Obviously," the cable said, "this is the Condor network, which all of us have heard about over the last few years."
Mr. White wrote that he had not independently confirmed the accuracy of the Paraguayan's report. But he recommended that Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance "review this arrangement to insure that its continuation is in the U.S. interest."
To Mr. White's knowledge, he said recently, the review was never done.
But the cable appeared to open new avenues of inquiry about the American role in Condor, a shadowy operation to stamp out the Latin American left that, among other things, dispatched death squads to kill critics at home and overseas.http://www.remember-chile.org.uk/news/01-03-06nyt.htm
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