EXPANSION OF CHILEAN COMMUNIST PRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A000200510004-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: February 17, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-0081OA000200510004-9
.CENTRA.L INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
SECURITY INFORMATION
COUNTRY Chile
SUBJECT Expansion of Chilean Communist Press
25X1A
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
25X1X
This Document contains Information affecting the. Na
tional Defense of the United States, within the mean-
frig of Title 18, Sections 793 and 794, of the U.S. Code, as
amended. Its transmission or revelation of its contents..
to or receipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited
by law. The reproduction of this form is prohibited.
25X1A
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTR. 17 February 1953
NO. OF PAGES 2
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
REFERENCES
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE.
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
1, In conjunction with efforts of the Communist Party. of Chile (PCCh) to increase
its propaganda activities, PCCh leaders intend to revive the following news-
papers which were shut down prior to or at the time the PCCh was forced.under-
ground in 1948s El Despertar de los TrabaJadores, in Igiique- El Coquimbo in
Coquimbo; and El Siglo, 14 Concepcion. A new, as yet unnamed., Communist
newspaper for the Punta Arenas region of Chile, in the extreme southern zone
will be inaugurated. El Despertar de los TrabaJadores has already resumed
publication on a limited scale and will serve as the.Cenmimist organ for
northern Chile. El Coquimbo will be published in Coquimbo. and distributed
throughout the so-called .tiNorte Chico" zone of north-central Chile. El Siglo
of Concepcion will cover the south-central zone.
2. On 10 January 1953 E1 S correspondents met at ELSiglo offices in. Santiago
to discuss administrative changes. The meeting was publicized by E to and
is the second such meeting to take place in recent weeks. Victor CONTRERAS
Tapia was named chief of all $o correspondents and has since departed
for northern Chile, where he will hold similar gatherings in Antofagasta,
Iquique, and Arica, which are designed. to improve news coverage in those
areas. CONTRERAS, at one time a leading PCCh leader, has been extremely ill
during the past few years, suffering from;"low blood pressure and overweight.
The northern trip marks his return to active Party status.
3. Among the most recent additions to the growing list of Communist publications
in Chile are a 204.-,page.Spanish edition of MAO Tse-Tung?s La Nueva Demooracia,
a history of the Chinese revolutions and a fourteen-page history of the
Chilean Communist labor movement., taken from the writings of Luis Emilio
RECABARREN. Both were published in Santiago.
it has been determined that the monthly magazine Unidad, of the employees of
the Caja'de Seguro Obligatorio in Santiago, is edited by Communist Alfonso
RAMOS, a former Ei i to writer, and follows the PCCh political line, While
not the official publication of the Caja de Seguro Obligatorio employees,
CONFIDENTIAL
,STATE ARMY BAVY
A1R FBI AEC
II
(Notes Wabin.terv Distribution Indieatad "X"i Field Distribution "#".)
Approved For Release 2001/03104: CIA-RDP80-0081OA000200510004-9
 Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-0081OA000200510004-9
25X1A
Unidad is advertised as such by 1 Silo and has a circulation of 2,000 copies,
5, In discussing the discovery of large quantities of Communist propaganda in
the ruins of the disastrous Valparaiso fire and explosion of 1 January 1953,
the following information regarding the handling of Communist propaganda
bundles arriving in Chilean ports has been reported: Incoming bundles are
thrown by Communist crew members of the carrier ship to marked tugboats during
landing operations. They are hidden in the tugs until after the carrier ship
has departed, at which time they are unloaded in water-front shacks, to be
picked up by vehicles of the Departamento de Obras Publican (Public Works
Department). These vehicles. in turn carry the material to specified railroad
and highway department warehouses, and from there regular distribution is
effected.
CONFIDENTIAL
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-0081OA000200510004-9