Francesca Lessa, "The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America" (Yale UP, 2022)
In this episode of the New Books in Latin America Studies podcast, Kenneth S\xe1nchez spoke with Dr Francesca Lessa about her interesting new book\xa0The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America\xa0published in 2022 by the Yale University Press.\nStories of transnational terror and justice illuminate the past and present of South America's struggles for human rights.\xa0Through the voices of survivors and witnesses, human rights activists, judicial actors, journalists, and historians, Francesca Lessa unravels the secrets of transnational repression masterminded by South American dictators between 1969 and 1981. Under Operation Condor, their violent and oppressive regimes kidnapped, tortured, and murdered hundreds of exiles, or forcibly returned them to the countries from which they had fled. South America became a zone of terror for those who were targeted, and of impunity for those who perpetuated the violence. Lessa shows how networks of justice seekers gradually materialized and effectively transcended national borders to achieve justice for the victims of these horrors. Based on extensive fieldwork, archival research, trial ethnography, and over one-hundred interviews,\xa0The Condor Trials\xa0explores South America's past and present and sheds light on ongoing struggles for justice as its societies come to terms with the unparalleled atrocities of their not-so-distant pasts.\nDr Francesca Lessa is a lecturer in Latin American studies and development at the University of Oxford. She is also the author of\xa0Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay\xa0and is an honorary president of the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu (Uruguay), a network of human rights NGOs devoted to the fight against impunity in that country.\nKenneth Sanchez is a Peruvian journalist and a multi-platform content curator for the Peruvian media outlet Comit\xe9 de Lectura. He is a host of the New Books in Latin American Studies podcast and the movies & entertainment podcast Segundo Plano. He holds a master\u2019s degree in Latin American Politics from University College London (UCL), is a Centre for Investigative Journalism masterclass alumni and is part of the 6th generation of Young Journalists of #LaRedLatam of Distintas Latitudes. He has won several awards, including the prestigious Amnesty Media Award given out by Amnesty International UK.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law