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Against a Continental Threat: Transnational Anti-Communist Networks of the Chilean Right Wing in the 1950s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2019

Marcelo Casals Open the ORCID record for Marcelo Casals [Opens in a new window]
Marcelo Casals*
Affiliation:
Marcelo Casals is Assistant Professor at the Centro de Estudios de Historia Política, Escuela de Gobierno, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez(Chile)
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: marcelo.casals@uai.cl.
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Abstract

Drawing on minutes, publications, diplomatic documents and the written press, I explore the transnational networks of the Chilean right wing within Latin America in the 1950s, especially around the four Congresses against Soviet Intervention in Latin America held in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Lima and Antigua between 1954 and 1958. I argue that the Chilean right wing's participation in those networks alongside other Latin American like-minded actors was based on both its long local experience in fighting communism and its attachment to Cold War anti-communism. In these transnational spaces, some Chilean right-wingers gained recognition and prestige, as was the case with the conservative leader Sergio Fernández Larraín, largely thanks to his systematic denunciation of supposed Soviet penetration in the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR), then the ruling party in Bolivia.

Spanish abstract

A partir de minutas, publicaciones, documentos diplomáticos y prensa escrita, exploro las redes transnacionales de la derecha chilena en América Latina en los años 1950s, especialmente alrededor de los cuatro Congresos contra la Intervención Soviética en América Latina llevados a cabo en la Ciudad de México, Río de Janeiro, Lima y Antigua entre 1954 y 1958. Argumento que la participación de la derecha chilena en esas redes junto a otros actores latinoamericanos afines se basó tanto en su experiencia local de larga data en su lucha contra el comunismo como en su conexión con el anticomunismo de la Guerra Fría. En estos espacios tradicionales, algunos derechistas chilenos obtuvieron reconocimiento y prestigio, como fue el caso del líder conservador Sergio Fernández Larraín, en gran parte gracias a su sistemática denuncia de la supuesta penetración soviética en el Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR), entonces en el poder en Bolivia.

Portuguese abstract

Com base em atas de reuniões, publicações, documentos diplomáticos e da imprensa escrita, eu exploro as redes transnacionais da direita do Chile na América Latina dos anos 1950s, focando em particular nos quatro Congressos Contra a Intervenção Soviética na América Latina realizados na Cidade do México, Rio de Janeiro, Lima e Antígua entre 1954 e 1958. Argumento também que a integração da direita Chilena a estas redes, conjuntamente com outros agentes Latino Americanos semelhantes, foi devido à experiência da mesma em lutar contra o comunismo e sua ligação ao anticomunismo da Guerra Fria. Nestes espaços transnacionais, alguns membros da direita ganharam prestígio e reconhecimento, como foi o caso do líder conservador Sergio Fernández Larraín, em grande parte devido à denúncia sistemática da suposta penetração Soviética no Movimento Nacionalista Revolucionário (MNR), nesse momento o partido governista da Bolívia.

Keywords

anti-communismright wingtransnational networksCold WarChileanticomunismoderecharedes transnacionalesGuerra FríaChileanticomunismodireitaredes transnacionaisGuerra FriaChile
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 523 - 548
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

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23 Eladio Huentemilla, ‘Antecedentes de la Ley de Defensa Permanente de la Democracia’, unpubl. BA thesis, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 1992, pp. 33–44.

24 Fernández Larraín compiled and published his own speeches at this juncture in order to give them greater publicity. Larraín, Sergio Fernández, ¡¡Traición!! (Santiago: El Imparcial, 1941)Google Scholar.

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27 Correa, Con las riendas del poder, chap. 3. The majority of the conservatives remained in the party. After the split, they agreed to add the adjective ‘Traditionalist’ to their name, resulting in the Partido Conservador Tradicionalista (Traditionalist Conservative Party, PCT), in order to differentiate themselves from the Partido Conservador Social Cristiano (Social Christian Conservative Party), organised around Cruz-Coke and his supporters.

28 Larraín, Sergio Fernández, Informe sobre el comunismo rendido a la Convención General del Partido Conservador Unido el 12 de octubre de 1954 (Santiago: Talleres de la Empresa Editora Zig-Zag, 1954), p. 167Google Scholar. At the same time, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy initiated a large-scale anti-communist campaign in the United States. Although I have not found evidence of any connection between Fernández Larraín and McCarthy, the left-wing press did notice the resemblance. According to Fredrick Pike, Fernández Larraín was known – in a mocking tone – as the ‘McCarthy from Melipilla’, referring to his birthplace. Pike, Fredrick B., Chile and the United States, 1880–1962: The Emergence of Chile's Social Crisis and the Challenge to United States Diplomacy (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1963), note 425Google Scholar.

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36 Mario Virgilio Santiago Jiménez, ‘Entre “hispanistas” y “pro-yanquis”. El Primer Congreso contra la Intervención Soviética en América Latina, México, mayo de 1954’, Nuevo Mundo – Mundos Nuevos, Coloquios (2017): https://nuevomundo.revues.org/70497, last access 6 Nov. 2018.

37 On the American intervention in Guatemala, see Schlesinger, Stephen C. and Kinzer, Stephen, Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, 2nd edn (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

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39 Santiago Jiménez, ‘Entre “hispanistas” y “pro-yanquis”’.

40 ‘Frente Popular anticomunista en América presidiría D. Eisenhower’, El Diario Ilustrado, 1 June 1954, p. 9.

41 ‘“Memoria del primer congreso contra la intervención soviética en América Latina”. Publicaciones de la Comisión Permanente del Primer Congreso contra la Intervención Soviética en América Latina, México, 1955’, Estudios sobre el Comunismo, 12 (April–June 1956), p. 142.

42 Memoria del Segundo Congreso contra la Intervención Soviética en América Latina (Mexico City: n.p., 1956), pp. 5–7Google Scholar. One of these commissions visited Guatemala after the overthrow of Árbenz. As a way of showing support for the dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas and expressing its enthusiasm for the CIA-inspired coup, the Commission published an extensive essay condemning ‘communism’ in Guatemala: Comisión Permanente del Primer Congreso Contra la Intervención Soviética en América Latina y Jorge Prieto Laurens, El libro negro del comunismo en Guatemala: Comisión Permanente del Primer Congreso contra la Intervención Soviética en América Latina (Mexico City: S. Turanzas del Valle, [1954]).

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48 Ibid., p. 281.

49 ‘Simpatías continentales halla el Congreso Anticomunista en Brasil’, El Diario Ilustrado, 24 Aug. 1955, p. 1; ‘Las 21 naciones de América Latina, unidas para impedir la intervención comunista’, El Diario Ilustrado, 26 Aug. 1955, pp. 1 and 4; ‘Ponencias presentadas por la delegación chilena, aprobadas en el Congreso contra Intervención Soviética en América Latina’, El Diario Ilustrado, 30 Aug. 1955, p. 2, and 1 Sept. 1955, p. 5. Fernández Larraín came very close to chairing the Permanent Commission. Although the assembly voted by a majority for Penna Botto, the Brazilian admiral in a modest gesture tried to reject the position, proposing instead the Chilean conservative. The manoeuvre did not succeed. Memoria del Segundo Congreso, p. 314.

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58 The National Archives, United Kingdom (TNA), Foreign Office, file 371/126087, American Department 1077/2, ‘Third Congress against Soviet Intervention in Latin America held in Lima, 10–14 April 1957’.

59 Ibid.

60 Iber, Neither Peace nor Freedom, pp. 96–7.

61 ‘Partido Conservador Unido adhiere a Congr. Anti-comunista en Lima’, El Diario Ilustrado, 10 April 1957, p. 4.

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63 ‘La conferencia de Lima’, El Diario Ilustrado, 12 April 1957, p. 3. The implicit mention, by the way, referred to social-Christian groups, such as the National Falange, which supported repeal of the law.

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65 This was an initiative that would bear fruit in the 1960s and 1970s, when some Latin American actors joined global anti-communist organisations such as the World Anticommunist League: Pierre Abramovici, ‘The World Anti-Communist League: Origins, Structures and Activities’, in van Dongen et al. (eds.), Transnational Anti-Communism, pp. 113–29.

66 Ibid., p. 119.

67 CIDC, Resoluciones del Tercer Congreso, p. 3.

68 TNA, ‘Third Congress’, American Department 1077/2.

69 Ibid.

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73 TNA, ‘Third Congress’, American Department 1077/5.

74 Bilbao, ‘El Segundo Congreso’, p. 44.

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81 After poor performances in several elections, some of the members who had left the party after the 1948 law (and who had joined the Social-Christian Conservative Party; see note 27) rejoined the PCT, while others would join the PDC on its foundation in 1957. To acknowledge this fact, the PCT changed its name in 1953 (replacing ‘Traditionalist’ by ‘Unido’, or ‘United’), retaining this name until its dissolution in 1966: Correa, Con las riendas del poder, p. 139.

82 Larraín, Sergio Fernández, El comunismo en Bolivia. Versión taquigráfica de la conferencia ofrecida por el autor en el Salón de Actos del Partido Conservador Unido, el 3 de mayo de 1956 (Santiago: Publicaciones de la Unión Democrática Boliviana, 1956), p. 3Google Scholar.

83 At this time (before the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s) Fernández Larraín viewed the leading role given to peasants as evidence of a ‘Chinese’ type of regime, but one that was nevertheless led by Moscow.

84 Fernández Larraín, El comunismo en Bolivia. Versión taquigráfica, p. 17.

85 Ibid., p. 36.

86 International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Bolivia) Collection, Letter from Mario Diez de Medina, Bolivian ambassador to Mexico, to Manuel Barrau, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Culture of Bolivia, Mexico City, 28 June 1957, fiche no. 397, f. 6466.

87 TNA, ‘Third Congress’, American Department 1077/4.

88 TNA, ‘Third Congress’, American Department 1077/5.

89 Fernández Larraín, El marxismo en Bolivia, pp. 264–5.

90 Ibid., p. 273. Emphasis in original.

91 IV Congreso Continental Anticomunista, p. 43.

92 Cruz, Fernando Zegers Santa, ‘El IV Congreso Continental Anticomunista’, Estudios sobre el comunismo, 24 (April–June 1959), p. 40Google Scholar.

93 IV Congreso Continental Anticomunista, p. 6.