st leaders ran throughout the Southern Cone. The South American countries felt their "Western- Christian values as under attack from an atheist left" ( Lopez Levy, 1999). Not coincidentally, this authoritarian and military oppression occurred during the Cold War. During the Cold War, the US began training and imposing their political values on these countries through the School of Americas. The United States, who endorsed the 1973 coup, not surprisingly facilitated and endorsed Operation Condor. This fear of opposition and leftist ideas ruled in this time period and all measures were taken to prevent the spread of communism.
             While many of these countries, like Chile, had democratically elected leftist rulers, due to Cold War fear, the pendulum of politics swung the other way. Since the 1964 fall to military dictatorship in Brazil, all Southern Cone countries decided to follow its lead and turn the government over to hard lined rightist dictators. Bolivia was after Brazil in 1971, and then the coup d'etat of Chile added Pinochet to the list of ruthless dictators that were taking over South America. The politics in Uruguay changed dramatically in these years from being a reformist government to being a country known for its torture campaigns. Most importantly, since 1954 Paraguay was ruled by General Alfredo Stroessener, who now is known for having committed some of the worst crimes against humanity. Ironically, Richard Nixon hailed Stroessener as being a "model anti-communist" and even funded his government (Lopez Levy, 1999). These dictators se
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