---
title: "Extrajudicial Killings | Latin American History"
description: "Extrajudicial killings are unlawful government killings without due process, often tied to state terror and repression in Latin American dictatorships."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/latin-america-1791-present/key-terms/extrajudicial-killings"
type: "key-term"
subject: "Latin American History – 1791 to Present"
unit: "Unit 7"
---

# Extrajudicial Killings | Latin American History

## Definition

Extrajudicial killings are unlawful killings carried out by government agents without legal process. In Latin American history, the term usually shows up in discussions of dictatorships, state terror, and human rights abuses.

## What It Is

Extrajudicial killings are killings carried out by state agents, or by people acting with state protection, without arrest, trial, or any real due process. In Latin American history, the term is usually used for violence committed by military regimes, security forces, or paramilitary networks that acted as if they were above the law.

What makes the term especially serious is not just that someone died, but that the state turned lethal force into a political tool. Governments sometimes defended these actions as anti-insurgent or anti-crime measures, but the killings often targeted political opponents, union organizers, students, journalists, or anyone labeled a threat.

During the era of military dictatorships in the region, especially in the 1960s through the 1980s, extrajudicial killings were part of broader campaigns of repression. They worked alongside kidnapping, torture, and disappearance. In the Argentine Dirty War, for example, the regime used systematic violence to silence dissent and spread fear, making it dangerous even to speak, protest, or ask questions.

These killings are called extrajudicial because they happen outside the legal system. There is no fair trial, no independent judge, and usually no meaningful accountability afterward. That lack of accountability is one reason the term is tied to state terrorism, since terror is produced not only by the act itself, but by the message it sends to everyone else.

In Latin American history classes, this term often appears when you are tracing how authoritarian governments maintained control, or when you are reading about human rights groups and survivor testimony. It also connects to later efforts to document abuses, identify victims, and push for truth and justice after dictatorships ended.

## Why It Matters

Extrajudicial killings help explain how authoritarian regimes in Latin America kept power when they did not rely only on laws, ballots, or public support. They show the point where politics becomes open state violence, and they reveal why human rights language became so central to late twentieth-century history in the region.

The term also helps you read a lot of related material more accurately. When a source describes a person being "disappeared," tortured, or taken by security forces, you need to ask whether the state was using terror not just to remove an individual, but to intimidate an entire population. That distinction matters in essays about dictatorship, democratization, and memory.

This concept is especially useful for understanding why groups like the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo became so powerful. Their protests were not only about one person or one family member. They challenged a whole system in which the state could kill, deny responsibility, and hide the evidence.

## Connections

### State Terrorism

Extrajudicial killings are one of the clearest tools of state terrorism. The goal is not only to eliminate opponents, but to frighten everyone else into silence. In Latin American dictatorships, that fear often spread through rumors, arrests, disappearances, and the knowledge that the police or military could act without consequence.

### Human Rights Violations

Extrajudicial killings sit inside the larger category of human rights violations, but they are a very specific kind because the state itself is responsible. In a history essay, this term helps you connect a single killing to broader patterns of repression, censorship, torture, and denial of legal protections.

### [Dirty War](/latin-america-1791-present/key-terms/dirty-war)

The Dirty War in Argentina is one of the best-known examples of a context where extrajudicial killings occurred. The regime used secret detention, torture, and murder against suspected leftists and dissidents. If you see this term in a reading, it usually signals that violence was systematic, not random.

### [Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo](/latin-america-1791-present/key-terms/mothers-of-the-plaza-de-mayo)

This group shows the human side of the issue. The Mothers demanded answers about disappeared relatives and pushed back against the silence surrounding state violence. Their activism matters because it turned private grief into public pressure for truth, accountability, and documentation of abuses.

## On the AP Exam

A short-answer question or essay prompt may ask you to identify how a dictatorship maintained control, and this term is one of the clearest pieces of evidence you can use. If a source mentions secret arrests, murdered dissidents, or bodies never officially accounted for, you can connect that evidence to extrajudicial killings and explain how the state used violence outside the courts.

In document analysis, look for words like "disappeared," "security forces," "anti-subversive," or "cleanup operations." Those clues often point to state violence being hidden behind official language. A strong response does more than define the term. It explains the political purpose of the killings and links them to fear, repression, and the collapse of legal protections.

## Key Takeaways

- Extrajudicial killings are unlawful killings carried out by state authorities or with state backing, without trial or due process.
- In Latin American history, the term is closely tied to military dictatorships and campaigns of repression against real or imagined political enemies.
- These killings often worked together with kidnapping, torture, and disappearance, so they were part of a larger system of terror.
- The term matters because it shows how governments can use violence to control society while pretending to act in the name of security.
- When you see this term in a source, look for evidence of secrecy, lack of accountability, and pressure on families or activists who demand answers.

## FAQs

### What are extrajudicial killings in Latin American History?

Extrajudicial killings are unlawful killings by government agents or state-backed forces without trial or due process. In Latin American history, they usually refer to repression under dictatorships, especially when the state targeted dissidents, activists, or other perceived enemies.

### How are extrajudicial killings different from disappearances?

An extrajudicial killing is about the unlawful killing itself, while a disappearance means the state hides what happened to the person. In many Latin American dictatorships, the two were connected because victims were abducted, tortured, killed, and then denied official recognition.

### Why do dictatorships use extrajudicial killings?

Dictatorships use them to remove opposition quickly and to scare the rest of the population. The violence sends a message that the state can punish dissent without courts, which weakens trust in law and makes organized resistance riskier.

### What is a historical example of extrajudicial killings in Latin America?

Argentina's Dirty War is a major example, because the military junta used secret detention, torture, and killing against suspected opponents. The violence was systematic, which is why it is studied as part of state terrorism rather than isolated abuse.

## Related Study Guides

- [7.2 Human Rights Violations and State Terrorism](/latin-america-1791-present/unit-7/human-rights-violations-state-terrorism/study-guide/4Hc6zxLaBwGe6mJU)

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