Torture

La larga sombra de Dos Erres

Washington, D.C., 19 de marzo de 2026 - El tribunal federal de Ottawa finalmente decidió revocar la ciudadanía canadiense de un oficial militar guatemalteco que participó en una horrible y tristemente célebre masacre de cientos de civiles inocentes en 1982.

El 5 de febrero, la decisión concluyó que Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes, un ex subteniente y miembro de las fuerzas especiales Kaibiles, cometió crímenes de lesa humanidad al participar en la masacre de hombres, mujeres y niños que vivían en el pequeño pueblo de Dos Erres, en el norte de Guatemala.

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres

Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026 - After a decade-long investigation and a trial lasting more than five weeks, a federal court in Ottawa has ruled to revoke the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan military officer who participated in a horrific and notorious massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians in 1982.

The Top Secret Testimony of CIA’s MKULTRA Chief, 50 Years Later

Washington, D.C., October 30, 2025 – The CIA experienced “as many failures as successes” in exploring the intelligence applications of LSD and other drugs, according to the October 1975 U.S. Senate testimony of the Agency’s former top chemist, Sidney Gottlieb, the man most closely associated with the notorious MKULTRA behavior control research projects. “[T]he results of everything told us that the money expended, the effort expended, the security risk involved, when you add everything up … it was probably not a high pay-off program.”

CIA Behavior Control Experiments Focus of New Scholarly Collection

Washington, D.C., December 23, 2024 – Today, the National Security Archive and ProQuest (part of Clarivate) celebrate the publication of a new scholarly document collection many years in the making on the shocking secret history of the CIA’s mind control research programs. The new collection, CIA and the Behavioral Sciences: Mind Control, Drug Experiments and MKULTRA, brings together more than 1,200 essential records on one of the most infamous and abusive programs in CIA history.

Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: 20 Years Later

Washington, D.C., August 28, 2023 – On the 20th anniversary of the Peruvian truth commission’s final report, the National Security Archive posts a core collection of declassified U.S. documents chronicling 20 years of conflict across three presidential administrations along with records relating to the 2001 decision to establish a commission to investigate the violence.

Haspel Personally Observed CIA Waterboarding, Witness Testifies

Washington, D.C., June 23, 2022 – Gina Haspel, 15 years before President Trump nominated her and the US Senate confirmed her as CIA director, personally oversaw the waterboarding of alleged USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri at a black site prison in Thailand in 2002, according to recent testimony at a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Waterboarding has been recognized as a war crime since World War II, when the US prosecuted Japanese soldiers for, among other charges, torturing American POWs with waterboarding.

‘Declassification Diplomacy’: Lessons Learned on The Argentina Declassification Project (ADP)

Washington D.C., September 22, 2021 - In an effort to advance a novel foreign policy tool known as “Declassification Diplomacy,” the National Security Archive today posted key administrative papers on the Argentina Declassification Project (ADP), begun by President Barack Obama and completed during the Trump administration.

Guatemala: Arrests Create First Possibility of Justice for Death Squad Dossier Victims

Washington, D.C., June 4, 2021—Twenty-two years after the National Security Archive published the notorious “Death Squad Dossier” of Guatemala – which chronicled the kidnapping and disappearance of 183 people by government agents over a period from 1983-85 – police arrested 11 former military and security force officials on varying charges of forced disappearance, torture, rape, and assassination connected to the document.

Brazil Abetted Overthrow of Allende in Chile

Washington D.C., March 31, 2021 – The Chilean ambassador to Brazil, Raúl Rettig, sent an alarming cable in March 1971 to his foreign ministry titled “Brazilian Army possibly conducting studies on guerrillas being introduced into Chile.” Multiple sources had informed the Embassy that the Brazilian military regime was evaluating how to instigate an insurrection to overthrow the Allende government.