Newly declassified documents published yesterday have revealed that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger urged Argentina’s military junta to crush political opposition in 1976.

Kissinger told Argentinian foreign minister Cesar Augusto Guzzetti that “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly…We won’t cause you unnecessary difficulties. If you can finish before Congress gets back, the better.”

Large sections of the documents were blacked out, but evidence remained that as early as June 1976 Kissinger backed the Condor Plan, a pact between South American dictatorships to violently repress political dissidents.

According to official figures, nearly 9,000 people disappeared during Argentina’s dirty war, but human rights organizations put the figure nearer to 30,000.