ABSTRACT
During the years of state terror in Latin America, the creation of silence, terror and dread in society was a key objective of the military regimes. They did not only impose terror and repression upon their own populations as a means of social and political control. Through Operation Condor, military regimes across the region—supported by the US government—jointly created a transnational apparatus with which to pursue exiles or refugees who had escaped their own dictatorships. The concept of the parallel state (or parastatal system) allows us to describe and analyse secret forces and infrastructure such as these, developed as a hidden part of the state to carry out covert counter-insurgency or counter-terror wars. Fear and silence were explicitly fostered as part of a counter-insurgency strategy to dominate rebellious social classes (i.e. internal enemies), extinguish their hopes and dreams for social justice and enforce social and political control. Moreover, the imposition of impunity during many of the transitions to civilian government in Latin America was a means to perpetuate silence and fear, erase historical memory, create a fearful, quiescent civil society and subdue political participation and opposition movements.
