Chile: the balanced view : a recopilation of articles about the Allende years and after

a springboétrd by Cuba to carry out all kinds of arbitrary acts in other countries of the hemisphere, and how Castro infiltrated specific Chilean social groups. One of the first pieces of advice given by Castro to the Allende government was related to the urgency of assuming control of all the communications media that were not Castro– Marxist inspired. At the time, the tabloid Clarín, dedicated to yellow-press sensationalism, owned by Darío Sainte Marie, a friend and associate of Allende in numerous commercial and political activities, was ampng those most broadly circulating in the country. Practically the entire journalistic team of "Prensa Latina", the Cuban news agency, and the Punto Final maga– zine, financed with Cuban money and guiding light of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria, the legitimate child of LASO, likewise worked in Clarín. Before the regime of Dr. Salvador Allende, and while the authorities chased down MIR murderers, holdup men, and delinquents, Clarín supplied daily keys on meeting places, action to be follow~d, or places to be struck that day. Once Dr. Salvador Allende was installed in power, his Castroite advisors pointed out to him the advisability of taking control of that papero But Darío Sainte Marie, besides being Allende's friend, was an old and shrewd businessman, who placed a high price on the sale of his company, which, by the way, possessed modern machinery and costly buildings and installations. Investigations carried out in my country by the Consejo de Defensa del. Estado (Council for Defense of the State) have established the large remittances to and dollar deposits in Darío $ainte Marie's accounts in Swiss banks, originating in various sources: Bank of Czechoslovakia, 500 thousand dollars; Swiss banks and other financial institutions of that nationality, 280 thousand dollars; and, Mr. Chairman, Messrs. Representatives, BANCO NACIONAL DE CUBA, transfer to a Zurich bank, account number 11,235, in the name of the figurehead used by Dr. Salvador Allende, 780 thousand dollars. It has been likewise established that such contribution bythe Banco Nacional de Cuba corresponded exactly to the total transierred by Allende to Sainte Marie's account. Mr. Chairman, this fact clearly reveals that Fidel Castro provided the necessary dollars to enable Dr. Salvador Allende to appear as buying one of the newspapers holdingwidest circulation in Chile. A preliminary report by the Consejo de Defensa del Estado comrnents thus on this matter: "The Council points out that the negotiations in connection with Clarín were partly carried out with US$ 780,000 transferred by the Banco Nacional de Cuba to the Swiss account of Víctor Pey Casado. My government shall submit to the Quito meeting photoco– pies of the documents supporting such transfers. Considering that evidence allows presu– ming t.hat the latter was an agent or figurehead of Dr. Salvador Allende, this would mean that either Mr. Allende had hidden business with Cuba, orthat Fidel Castro provided the monies allowing Mr. Allende and the Socialist Party to take over Clarín, something which must be considered as an act of intervention in the internal affairs of the Government of Chile." But Cuban action went much furtherin my country. From the very moment in which Chile reestablished diplomatic relaltons with Cuba, the government of that country introdu– ced a large number of agents and agitators into Chile. For this purpose, diplomatic and official visas were indiscriminately used in order to remove Cuban agitators arriving in the country from ordinary police control. Thus, between January 1971 and August 1973, 1,305 diplomatic visas and 1,255 official visas were issued in Havana to Cubans travelling to Chile. By adding to this the 81 diplomatic visas and the 39 official visas issued in Santiago during the same period and under identical conditions, we reach a total of 1,386 diplomatic visas and 1,294 ofiicial visas granted in favour ofCuban citizens. Surelythe delegates shall not fail to realize that such a figure is truly out of proportion to the relations of two small countries over 10,000 ki lometers away from one another. Naturally, it is not in relation to the situation in the past. It is necessary to point out that these figures do not include ordinary visas issued in the period, and on which we shall duly inform the governments here represented. 94