COMMUNIST INFILTRATION IN LATIN AMERICA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 16, 2013
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: REPORT

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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001:9
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COMMUNIST INFILTRATION IN LATIN AMERICA
By Jaime Fonseca-Mora
1Ettitor1bticias-Catolicas
C i6O75
e
As the Soviet leaders prepared their followers in the Thirties
for a total wary against Hitler, they are today laying down the
psychological strategy for a total war: with "reactionary imperialism"?
meaning the Western Powers, and mainly the United States. Should war
come, every single Communist will be a soldier and defender of his
true and only fatherland, Russia, and of his true and only ideal, the
"people's democracy."
Latin America is no exception to this psychological, and some-
times brutal, war of "encirclement." Agents from Russia, its satellites,
and the local red groups are bent on spreading political, economic and
social ideas which will in time pave the way for things to come?either
by military action or plain fifth-column infiltration. This political
or psychological warfare is for the Communist leaders perhaps their
most important plan, since it might save them a costly, dubious war.
Victory hangs on this preparation of the consciences of people-s, and
It is on this field that the challenge has to be met.
The Soviet is already waging a cultural war in Latin America;
it is aiming at the heart of these peoples, at their very BoX1. It
Is their human values their conception of life as a whole, that Is
put at stake.
What is the reaction of the United States as a government and as
a public, towardthe Latin American factor in this warfare?
.
The reaction has been a tiMid one'; There is a great ignorance of-
the values involved. Some grave mistakes had been made already. Further-
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
Introduction g
if
more, the Slavic soul of the peoples of Central Europe basically
finds a more sympathetic understanding and dTinity among the Latin
American peoples, than does the soul of the Anglo-Saxon world.
The upshot of this warfare will be a growth toward "neutralism
in Latin America. Whether it will have time to consolidate itself
Is a matter of wider scope than can be discussed here. As a whole,
Latin America may reject Communism, but it is also trying to get on
a firmer footing, on an equal basis, with the greater powers, especially
Great Britain and the United States. Reds are using nationalism now:
for their purpose, but should Moscow lose its grip, probably socialist,
autonomous states will emerge in place of the present liberal structu-
res in Latin America. There are signs of "titoism" in some red circles,
and thia may prove another outcome. At any rate, a profound, fast-
moving change in the social thinking of these peoples is, taking place,
and Red agents are doing all they can, with abundant means, to channel
that trend along the pattern set by the Kremlin.
Many authors have pointed to the similarities between the Russian
country folk and the Latin American peasant. There was also a parallel
traced with the Chinese farmer. They all possess a mystic attachment
to the land and a deep craving for a better world; they are rebellious
about the unjust conditions imposed by wealth monopoly. The Russiar,
revolution of 1917 found a tremendous echo among idealistic leaders
in Latin America. Many of them later became the pioneers of the red
movement. Their strongest ties with Communism were not its positive
teachings, but the common urge for a rebellion against oppression.
More could be said about this spiritual affinity, but it is enough to
register this fact here.
More immediate factors press upon the relations of these countties
with the United States. They are ignorance and error. Perhaps if one
wished to make a deeperstudy of the matter, these factors could turn
out to be only syri*oms of two different when not opposing,ways of
D
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
ififffleariam
Introduction 3
411' 4 and acting. As a whole, United States policy seems to be a
pragmatic one in the sense that seeks to meet a situation now and here
while the Latin mind being of a more humanistic character, embraces
more universal values and has a deep sense of history and of interna#.
tional bonds. However, this account could not expand on this
Point without becoming too involved.
It is a fact that the average United States citizen, and most of
the leaders in the multifold life of the nation, know very little about
Latin America; or what is even worse, many entertain some curious mixture
of ideas about those countries, mainly the products of oversimplifica-
tion and overgereralization, when not straight prejudice. It is not
a national sin peculiar to this country; the Latins have as many or
more preconceived, unwarranted ideas about the Yankees.
Of all the public media of communication and education, perhaps
the moat important one is the press. Yet here are the findings of a
panel discussion held last month (march 1953) at the University of
Miami:
. Latin America cannot compete with Europe or the Far East
in the world news market by usual standards; but usual standards are
short of today's needs.
2. The coverage of Latin American news is not adequate; this
nadequacy makes it spotty, inconclusive and fragmentary. Unfair-
and inaccuracy follow, not so much out of specific errors
out of he haphazard irregular handling of Latin American new
In this general ignorance, a few hot-footed transients spend
a month in Latin-America and come back with a book written on the
subject.
k. News agencies avoid "hot" stories that might flick, goad or
infuriate a government or a business concern. Often they slant some
so as to leave everybody happy, at the price of blurring the picture.
but
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16 : CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
Introduction 4
-1016"1":7
5. Latin officia1e themselves make it hard for the U.S. public
to know their lands better. They either clamp rigid censorship on
their own press and sources or follow a changing unpredictable course
on vital matters.
The 'Sensational has taken OW the !!ensibl : revolutions,
rumbas and earthquakes come first on an editor's desk who knows that
his readers expect precisely that.
The only corrective method for such a situation is to dress the
facts with backgrounds explanation and other information that
ake the U.S. public understand any story coming say,. from Bo via,
t had happened in their own State.
asionallY some reports on Communist infiltration in Latin
America reach the reader. let only the expert could measure the
extent of the Red conspiracy in those lands because he has a picture
the whole situation. This report is precisely trying to put
ther meVeral stories, or rathdr the story of a plan in several
es and places.
Out of ignorance, perhaps more than of ill-will, he United
es has made serious mistakes in its relations with Latin America.
Privilege and also obligation go with the preponderance reached by
this country in international affairs. The following are the mistakes
that give some ground to the otherwise unfair accusations that the
Red psychological warfare unleashes against this country:
Alitherpver U.S. citizens or authorities have come into positions
of authority among Latin Americans, discrimination followed, particularly
concerning jobs, housing wage scales, social matters: in the Panama
Canal Zone in oil concessions in Colombia,and Venezuela; in banana
plantations in tropical lands; in Puerto Rico; among the Mexican
minorities in the Southwest; among the Latin American (mainly Puerto
Ricsve) soldiers fighting in Korea.
B) Some businessmen for many decades have made enemies with
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introduction 5
their practices. Many of hese practices are downrightllegal and
punishable in the United States, but down South--many times with
the connivance of local politicos--they can get away with them. Of
course, the trend is changing and there were always exceptions, but
the damage is done. American enterprise, skilfull and ingenious, may
have quickened some groups economy, and in fact whole towns and regions
have benefited: from the American investment. But many times these
businessmen, failing to recognize their tremendolts influence, have
sent other groups along the path of despair and misery, or held back
the natural development of a country's resources. The nationalization
of Bolivia's tin mines started when W. Stuart Symington forced down
the price of tin from $1,82 to $1.12, as Administrator of the Recons-
truction Finance Corporation, and indirectly had the Indian miners
working twelve hours a day for one dollar.
C) Marketing of American products is provitig another misuse&
channel. In terms of pesos, goods manufactured by high-standard-of-
living workers in the United States are only within reach of the
richest groups in Latin America. The poor are envious. Luxury items
strain the dollar stock, and what could be a source of farm machinery
and roads and other common welfare projects, turns into a thing to
widen the class cleavage in Latin America. Many movies are also stir-
ring the hunger of the masses by presenting an unattainable world.
Russia and their satellites are exploiting all this both in their
propaganda and in their trade.
The value of an account of Red penetration in Latin America
resides mainly in the fact that it brings out in unsuspected manner
the multifold variations of the Red conspiracy. The Cominform all-
embracing order seems to be: use anything if it avails the Party.
This fifth column is not invincille. Particularly in Latin
America, Red leaders never could feel they were standing on firm
ground, because as a rule the picture has many intangible factors. For
them it has been a painful process of doing and undoing, of learning
--14.1-PeWAPAPT-PR
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16 : CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9
Introduction 6
MEM 1WMA
But with time, experience, and above all with the continuation
of he present-day gross injustices the Red conspiracy can
assuredly succeed:
This account ls by no means complete It calmot claim to
bring to light the discovery of secret documents or underground
movements. It is gathered from already published information that
comes to an editor s desk in news reports, periodicals, magazines and
a few books, and particularly letters, often confidential, from numemus
correspondents* It is chiefly an effort at joining together the
otherwise meaningless pieces of a puzzle.
Except from some occasional remarks, there is no mention of
the social reform movement undertaken with promising success by the
Church and the Catholics, as there is no mention of other less
genuinely anti-Communist forces. The Catholic effort alone would
take a series as long, if not longer, as this account devoted to the
Red infiltration in Latin America.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2013/07/16: CIA-RDP83-00423R000400250001-9