War profiteer of the month: Condor

Condor Non-Lethal Technologies is a Brazilian company, specialising in tear gas, pepper spray, stun guns, rubber bullets, smoke grenades, impact grenades and pyrotechnics. It also offers training to public and private institutions around the world, aimed at providing “operators competency in the most modern non-lethal technologies on the market.” The company was founded in 1985 and regularly exhibits at DSEI and other arms fairs, such as Milipol.

Condor secured a $22 million dollar contract with the Brazilian government to provide tear gas, tasers, rubber bullets, tasers, and grenades to the Brazilian police, to be used to secure the World Cup and Olympics. From 2009 to 2014, the company grew by over 30% with one researcher describing how, for companies like Condor, huge events such as the World Cup are “like a fashion week; it is an opportunity to showcase the latest police gear, baiting future buyers.”

The company's weapons have been used to aid repression and counter dissent all over the world. Between 2008 and 2011, the Venezuelan government bought 150 tonnes of Condor's tear gas. When two Bahraini children were killed with the company's products, they claimed that the Bahraini authorities had not followed the instructions correctly. The company made similar claims when security forces in Egypt and and Turkey appeared to be using their equipment in order to intentionally increasing harm or even “systematically torture”