ORTEGA MASSON, RUDACINDO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-02771R000500480025-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 2000
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: December 4, 1952
• Content Type: BR

F
Approved For Welease 2000/08/27 ? CIA-RDP7R-fl 771 R000500480025-5
Ortega Masson, Rudecindo
State Dept. declassification instructions on file
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP78-02771 R000500480025-5
 SECRET SECURITY INFORMATIO*"
Approved For1C''elease : ?0,2771 R000500480025-5
ORTEGA Masson Rudecindo CHILE
The outstanding characteristics of the new Chief of the Chilean
Permanent Delegation to Un are his sympathy for the communist cause,
his enmity towards the U.S. and his firm conviction that the best
interests of Chile lie in close cooperation with the Argentine govern-
ment of President Perbn.
Ortega is a 53-year-old professional politician who was trained
as an educator and actually taught at the Instituto Naciona in
Santiago and the Licso of his native city of Temuco from 1920 to 1923.
The following year he was elected to Congress, where he remained un-
til his appointment as Minister of Education in 1938. He held this
portfolio until 19)x0 and seems to have handled himself well. In 1941
he was elected to the Senate for the 1941-1949 term. Meanwhile he
has acquired considerable stature in the Radical Party, becoming
identified with its left wing. By 1917 he joined cause with various
other leftists in the Radical Party who formed a schismatic group,
the "Doctrinaire Radicals", which has played close to the communists
and even engaged in temporary alliances with them on several occasions.
As a matter of fact, since the end of World War II Ortega has veered
more and more to the left and has lent his name to a multitude of com-
munist fronts. In his spare time he has also been one of the prime
movers of a "Committee for. the Defense of the Interests of Chile and
Latin America", which advocates coordinating nationalistic and anti-
U.S. efforts in Chile with those of Argentina.
After he left the Senate in 1919 Orgega returned to his pedagogic
activities at the National Institute and the Institute of Fine Arts,
but was quick to jump on the Ibanes bandwagon when that candidacy be-
gan to gain momentum. After Ibanes' election, it was generally ex-
pected that Ortega would be amply rewarded, but his selection for the
flop United Nations post has baffled some American observers, who find it dif-
ficult to see how Ibanaez could have made a more unfortunate choice
from the view of the U.S. In any event, whatever Ortega may say or
do at the UN should always be considered in the light of his ambition
to become President of Chile.
OLI:BI:GSallas:rem December 11, 1952
SECRET SECURITY INFORMATION
Approved For Release : -02771 R000500480025-5