Abstract

Based on the analysis of primary documentation from interrogation manuals from both the United States and the countries of the South American cone -Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile-, as well as reports issued by the different countries, the aim of the article is to analyse the common patterns in the detention and torture process suffered by guerrillas and insurgents belonging to violent organisations. We also seek to highlight the importance of the US model and the mutual influences between the dictatorships that developed in these Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s, and to draw a comparative line in the methodology used by the police and military forces.