With victims and their families anxiously awaiting a verdict, an Argentine federal court handed down a ruling that convicted fourteen former military officials of crimes related to the rampant kidnapping, torture, and murder that defined the sinister operation. Furthermore, the operation has been deemed a major contributor to the disappearance of an estimated 50,000 nationals from the six countries combined. Operation Condor integrated efforts between Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil in tracking and eliminating leftist political dissidents who had taken refuge across South America. On May 27, the international community witnessed what could be the first major step in the judicial process regarding the accused leaders of Operation Condor, the notorious South American network of planned abductions and killings carried out throughout the 1970s and 1980s. To download a PDF version of this article, click here. By Evan Owens, Research Associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs