EXPULSION OF MARIA LUCAS DE MACHADO FROM COLOMBIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R005000670005-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 25, 1999
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: June 22, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

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Approved For Rely i -9.99 0SEfC3iA DM,2-00457F~tI 067 ~tn
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y O I REPORT CD NO.. /151
COUNTRY Coiomb' a/&c:uadcr/ Venezuela DATE DISTR.. o2 j7
SUBJECT Expulsion of 1; .reia Lucas do Machado NO. OF' PAGES 2
from Colombia
PLACE
ACQUIRED
DATE OF
INFO.
4.
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NO. OF ENCLS.
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SUPPLEMENT TO 25X1 X
REPORT NO.
1"a ?ia !&,j fiucas do ?Oaehi o9 estranged ,r1fe of the Venezue c 1,rz u.ist leader
Gustavo I'"aehado Morales., has been expelled from Colombia at the Instigation
of the Chief of the Foreigners' Section of the Colombian National Police,*
Under arrest since 27 ""ay 1950 and under surveillance during the last 24 hours
of her stay in Colombia., she departed Bogota vii. Avia.nca for '?uitop, Ecuador,
on 3 June 19 50 U
2Q tier expulsion was prompted by the fear that her husband, who is understood to
be in hiding in Venezuela, might come to Colombia,, The police intended to
send her to T'enezuela, but at her request they allowed her to go to Ecuador.
3, She had lived in Colombia for several years and showed some disposition to
appeal the eznu].sion order to a higher authority. She offered a Conservative
lawyer, Carlos Reyes Posada, 5000 pesos to take the case to court? Reyes
Posac?.a, refused after t?ilking with police authorities who were determined to
remove her from Colombia... 25X1 X
although Maria Lucas de "'nchado has been a militant Communist
for many year., she has not been particularly active since early in 1949 when
h?r, "il.ri distributing company, cito Fi1-s, was no longer able to distribute
Russian films in Colombia. Communist Party leaders, do 25X1 X
not have implicit faith In her because of her immoral habits,
Co_Y enter "'aria Lucas de Wnehado, also =down as Ida Machado, was mana-
ger of ~Exito Films in Colombia, a distributing agency for Art'd.no Films of
New York. Exito Films was founded In A,ngust 1944, and distributed Russian,
Argentine and "ecican films. In January 1949, ! ania Lucas de Vaehado announced
that Fcito Films would not show Russian films as it was no longer possible
since the departure of the Soviet Legation from Bogota. She also said that
numerous difficulties had arisen over the exhibition of Russian films in
Caracas, Vs:nezuerl.a, as well, despite the niesence of a Soviet Legation in that
country.
CLASSIFICATION Cot FIDE": IA.L
Document No. --
No Chance to class. ~- --------- .
0 ;aulfietl
Class. Changed Toi TS S C
Approved For Release 1999/09/09 : CIA-R !0t H05000670005-2
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 Approved For Release 1999/09/09 : CIA-RDP82-00457R005000670005-2
CONFIDENTIAL 25X1 A
Fa.ria Luca de Machado 1.s reputedly a woman of great intelligence and i4
allegedly an enthusiastic discipl{) of Communist doctrines. She was -alleged
to have coooerated with the Partido Socialist- Democratica (former name of
the PCC) by receiving l)trge quantities of Soviet propaganda from the So-,-let
Legation for subsequent distribution to third parties. She is reported to
have contacts with various Communist Party officials in Venezuela, Chile and
Mexico, attribu.uted in pry.,*t to her husband" s orestige as a known revolutionary
Cor nunist. It has been reported that she served as ^ contact between th_7
Soviet Leg'.tion and the TO., and although at the time of that report it did
not qppeqr that she bei: nged to the PCC, she reportedly cakrried a membership
card of the Internationiil Communist Party, issued in Mexico.
Maria Lucas de achado, who wa., born in. Bretagne, France, went to Russia In
1934, and while there 7ti;ended the 17th Congress of the Communist Party in
Voscow. She returned to Pari,, in 1935, where she remained until 1939. From
Paris, she traveled to berxico and reoortediy joined the Communist Party of
that country. It was ;'.wring her stay in }roxico that she married Gustavo
Machado Morales. The 'iachadorj then came to Colombia and with the financial
assistance of Guillercro Machado, a wealthy brother of Gustavo, they started
Exito Films. Marla r3oorted1;7 joined the PCC in 1943 and later withdrew,
allegedly because o~L-' pressinf- business activities. When the PCC changed its
name to Partido Sn '.aiis to Damocratioa in August 1944, she applied for a new
membership and tsar, L%cceptr c on 10 September 1944. Liter, she apparently
again withdrew fr~jrn Party activities,
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 1999/09/09 : CIA-RDP82-00457R005000670005-2