In this episode, we discuss Costa-Gavras’s State of Siege, a tightly constructed political thriller based on the real-life kidnapping and execution of U.S. police advisor Dan Mitrione by Uruguay’s Tupamaros guerrillas. Set in early 1970s Uruguay but filmed in Allende-era Chile just before the coup, the film dramatizes how U.S. “public safety” programs—nominally about technical assistance and crime prevention—became tools of Cold War counterinsurgency, helping repressive regimes police and suppress political dissent.
With scholars Stuart Schrader (Badges Without Borders) and Alex Aviña (Specters of Revolution), we explore the intersections of U.S. empire, global policing, and revolutionary resistance in the Southern Cone, and reflect on what it means to live in a world still shaped by these Cold War legacies.
Further Reading
Specters of Revolution, by Alex
“When NACLA Helped Shutter the U.S. Office of Public Safety,” by Stuart
“From Police Reform to Police Repression,” by Stuart
Twitter thread on Dan Mitrione by Stuart
Badges Without Borders, by Stuart
Of Light and Struggle, by Debbie Sharnak
“The Long Arm of the Law,” by Lyle
Latin America’s Radical Left, by Aldo Marchesi
“Revolution Beyond the Sierra Maestra,” by Aldo Marchesi
Becoming the Tupamaros, by Lindsey Churchill
National Security Archive: The Dan Mitrione File
Teaser from The Episode
State of Siege Trailer
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