Terror Beyond Borders

Introducing the Database on South America’s Transnational Human Rights Violations

Bibliographic Data

ID24225267
AuthorsFrancesca Lessa (0000-0002-1029-1628, University College London), Lorena Balardini (Universidad de Buenos Aires)
Year2026
Pages1-19
Publication date2026-05-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American Research Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8791 • E-ISSN: 1542-4278
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/lar.2026.10133
OpenAlexW7162397262
LanguageEN
References cited16

This article introduces the Database on South America’s Transnational Human Rights Violations. We describe this dataset, which provides rich descriptive statistics on 805 victims of transnational repression between 1969 and 1981. We show how it complements the existing literature on transnational repression by focusing on a historical instance of collaboration among South America’s dictatorships that jointly silenced hundreds of dissidents living in exile abroad during their reigns of terror. This new data generates novel conclusions that help better understand the complex dynamics of transnational repression and Operation Condor in the region while also providing useful insights for contemporary instances of transnational repression. The most original empirical takeaways from our dataset include the following: (1) Uruguayans are the largest victim group by nationality; (2) political activists constitute the majority of the victims by affiliation; and (3) clandestine renditions of the victims occurred in a quarter of the recorded cases.

dissidents · human rights violations · Operation Condor · Political activists · political exile · South American dictatorships · transnational repression · Memory, violence, and history · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America · Political Conflict and Governance

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