THE OPERATIONAL PATTERN OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM IN LATIN AMERICA SUMMARY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000500020002-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 7, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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THE OPERATIONAL PATTERN OF
INTERNATIONAL CON. 1UNISM
IN LATIN AMERICA
Full appreciation Of the threat of international Communism
in Latin America, as throughout the world, demands knowledge of
the operational pattern of those organizations dedicated to the
spread of the Soviet Communist doctrine. These have included the
Comintern (the Third Communist International), active from 1919
to 1913, and its successor, the Cominform (the Communist Information
Bureau) which was formed after World War II and is still active.
Under the Comintern, pro-Soviet Communist parties were organized
and supported in foreign countries. A Latin American and Caribbean
X 'eau ,reau was one of five permanent regional branches which controlled
`f'bsidies, directed party activities, and selected individuals for
Comintern training centers within the Soviet Union. By 1935, 16 of
the 76 established Communist parties were in Latin America.
Today, the Cominform represents a modified Comintern, also
controlled from Moscow and serving to transmit the Soviet Communist
Party policy line to fraternal parties throughout the world, largely
through its international journal, published in 19 different
languages.
Under close and continuous Soviet Communist guidance, the program
of the Brazilian Communist Party has been developed as a model for
oths in Latin America. The Brazilian program emphasizes the isolation
of United States imperialism as the principal enemy of the people,,
and directs the Communists to seek nationalist business elements and
other bourgeois groups as allies in an effort to liquidate US interests.
Guided largely through the Cominform journal, other Latin American
Communist parties--in Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay,
Uruguay, and Venezuela--are developing similar programs, all related to
the ultimate objective of establishing pro-Soviet "peoples' democracies.'!
Further Soviet guidance may be expected to emerge from the Twentieth
Soviet Communist Party Congress, scheduled for February 1956.
Thirteen major international Communist front organizations represent
other channels for guidance. These have national affiliates, linked to
the national Communist parties, in almost every country of the free
world.
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Designed to influence as many social elements as possible in favor
of Soviet global aims, they are ostensibly dedicated to the promotion
of peace, or to the advancement of the interests of labor, youth,
women, lawyers, scientists, journalists, or other special groups. In
the repetitious pattern of their organization and objectives, the
guidance of Soviet Communism is evident. Through their national and
regional affiliates, Latin Americans have played a prominent role in
the organizations and at their congresses. Among the most active
affiliates are those associated with the World Peace Council, the
World Federation of Trade Unions, the World Federation of Democratic
Youth, the International Students' Union, and the Womens' International
Democratic Federation.
The techniques of indirect support and guidance through the
Cominform and the international fronts are not entirely sufficient
for the control of Latin American Communist parties. Certain problems
require more direct contact and supervision. First, the devious and
complex pattern of Soviet international policy, and its implications
for national Communist parties, must be explained to trusted national
leaders through personal and confidential briefings. Second, as the
older Latin American leaders (many trained under the old Comintern)
bedome inactive, the training and selection of new leaders must be
maintained under Soviet control. Third, as new leaders emerge within
the Soviet Communist Party itself, their control over top foreign
leaders must be established through direct personal contact.
These considerations explain the travel of top Latin American
leaders to the USSR., and in the support given by the Soviet Communist
Party to training and indoctrination of foreign Communists. In
October 1952, high leaders representing eleven Latin American Communist
parties attended the 19th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, at
which major decisions on international Communist strategy were confirmed.
Many other Latin American Communists have travelled to the USSR for
extensive study, or to participate in tours and conferences arranged
through international fronts.
Finally, Soviet Communist control over the local training and
indoctrination activities of Latin American Communist parties is aided
by the dissemination of Communist literature through the International
Book Trust, an agency of the Propaganda Commission of the Soviet Communist
Party Central Committee. This organization distributes a wide variety of
Spanish language books, pamphlets, and periodicals. Some of these are
Communist classics such as; the works of Stalin and Lenin; others are
training manuals, such as those used in Soviet Communist Party internal
training; still others are interpretive periodicals, such as the New
Times, which interprets world events, reprints favorable or useful
icier from the world press, and which serves as a medium for inter-
communication between parties. In the distribution of these publications,.
which are made available to local parties as gifts or at nominal costs,- can
be seen another aspect of an over-all organizational pattern dedicated to
the development of national Communist parties which will be aware ofs.
and continuously responsive to, Soviet Communist ideology and objectives.
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