When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror

The book When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of
Terror, despite its sensational title, is a collection of exhaustive
academic essays, edited by Cecilia Menjívar and Néstor Rodríguez,
analyzing the horrific counterinsurgency programs which had, and
continue to have an effect, on the majority of Latin America. The
essays make clear that they are by no means blaming the United States,
but they often analyze the decisive role that the U.S. plays in
implementing “technologies of terror”. The book touches on all of Latin
America, from Operation Condor, South America’s oppressive
international counterinsurgency program, to individual countries that
continue to be plagued by the state’s decision to kill, disappear,
torture, or imprison without due process. Despite the fact that each of
the essays is by a unique author, writing about a single country, a
definite pattern emerges. U.S. militarization of Latin American states,
first for the purposes of anti-communism, then counter narcotics
operations, and most recently the war on terror, often places the
machinery of brutal repression in the hands of an already oppressive
aristocracy. Even more frightening, are the counterinsurgency
techniques taught to the thousands of Latin American military officers
through U.S. training in the infamous School of the Americas, as well
as elsewhere. Interrogation methods, such as the application of
electrical shocks, appear time and time and again in rare instances of
exposure in Latin America, even, most notoriously, half way around the
world in Abu Ghraib.
The first section of the book takes it
upon itself to describe certain aspects of state terror in Mexico and
Central America. The most obvious cases of repression occurred in
Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, where intervention by the United
States is well documented, and the empowered regimes had hundreds of
thousands of violent deaths on their hands. In Honduras, a relatively
peaceful country, militarization for the purposes of combating leftist
Nicaraguan Sandanistas, shifted the power balance over to the military
and repression became the norm rather than the exception for a period
of time. Costa Rica, another relatively peaceful country, faced similar
outbreaks of repression during the same Reagan administration for the
same reasons. During the Chiapas rebellion in southern Mexico (a
fascinating rebellion for anyone that’s interested) officials were
trained by the U.S., and U.S. anti-narcotics funds were channeled into
the militarization of the region by Clinton, again resulting in deaths,
disappearances, and incarcerations without due process. The most
fascinating piece on Central America has to do with cadaver reports in
Guatemala. Guatemala didn’t have a free press under dictatorial rule,
but pictures of mutilated and tortured cadavers were often published,
usually nameless, functioning to give them greater representation and
instill terror among the populous.
For the pieces on South
America, the numbers regarding the people affected are greater, just by
virtue of the differences in population, and the repression was much
more organized. Operation Condor was a counterinsurgency program,
set-up, funded, and supported by the United States, that various states
used to chase political opponents across borders. Argentina was among
the most brutal of states, often exporting terror outside of its
borders. When states like Uruguay, who preferred to imprison its
opponents, wanted someone murdered, it would often be done in
Argentina. The most frightening recounting is of Columbia’s violence,
where paramilitaries and guerrilla groups resulted in thousands of
deaths. I personally know that’s getting a little better now though.