The New Latin American Left in a polarised Cold War: The story of Vivian Trías

ABSTRACT

Vivian Trías, a prominent Latin American intellectual and leader of the Uruguayan Socialist Party, was an agent of the Czechoslovak State Security Service (StB), the intelligence agency in communist Czechoslovakia. Through a critical analysis of the Czech archives, this article seeks to explain why Trías, who defined himself as a Latin Americanist and tercerista in the Cold War, developed this link with one of the Soviet Bloc countries. The article suggests that solidarity with Cuba and anti-imperialism were the central points through which this collaboration was consolidated.

KEYWORDS:

• New Left
• Czechoslovak intelligence
• Soviet influence in Latin America
• Latin American Cold War
• Cold War intellectuals
• Cold War espionage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ For the first mentions in the press, see: Vladimír Petrilák, ‘Vivian Trías: el mayor agente de la StB en América Latina’, StB no Brazil, https://stbnoBrazil.com/es/vivian-trias-el-mayor-agente-de-la-stb-en-america-latina (accessed 10 January 2019); Fernando López D’Alesandro’, Peritaje, mentiras y documentos: Vivian Trías, la historia y el marxismo leninismo’, Agencia Uruguaya de Noticias, 15 March 2018, http://www.uypress.net/auc (accessed 20 May 2018), Aldo Marchesi and Michal Zourek, ‘Vivian Trías y Checoslovaquia: ¿qué sabemos hasta ahora?’, La Diaria, 17 March 2018. See also two recent books that examine this archive: Vladimir Petrilák and Mauro Abranches Kraenski, La STB: el brazo de la KGB en Uruguay: Los archivos secretos del espionaje comunista desde los años 60 (Montevideo: Planeta, 2018); and Fernando López D’Alesandro, El hombre que fue Ríos: la inteligencia checoslovaca y la izquierda nacional (1956–1977) (Montevideo: Debate, 2019).

² See Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012); and Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2011).

³ See Tobias Rupprecht, Soviet Internationalism after Stalin: Interaction and Exchange between the USSR and Latin America during the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015); Rafael Pedemonte, ‘Una historiografía en deuda: las relaciones entre el continente latinoamericano y la Unión Soviética durante la Guerra Fría’, Historia Crítica 55 (2015): 231–54.

⁴ See Jonathan Haslam, Near and Distant Neighbors: A New History of Soviet Intelligence (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015); and Kristian Gustafson and Christopher Andrew, ‘The Other Hidden Hand: Soviet and Cuban Intelligence in Allende’s Chile’, Intelligence and National Security 33, no. 3 (2018): 407–21.

⁵ See Philip E. Muehlenbeck and Natalia Telepneva, eds., Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World: Aid and Influence in the Cold War (London: I.B. Tauris, 2018); and Daniela Richterova and Natalia Telepneva, eds., ‘The Secret Struggle for the Global South: Espionage, Military Assistance and State Security in the Cold War’, The International History Review 43, no. 1 (2019).

⁶ Patrick Iber, Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 7.

⁷ For the debate about the Old and New Left, see Eric Zolov, ‘Expanding our Conceptual Horizons: The Shift from an Old to a New Left in Latin America’, A Contracorriente 5, no. 2 (2008): 47–73; and Aldo Marchesi, Latin America’s Radical Left: Rebellion and Cold War in the Global Sixties (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

⁸ By National Left we understand the regional movement developed during the 1950s in South America that tried to reconcile the rural popular struggles of the nineteenth century in Latin America with the internationalist traditions of the left that reached the urban areas of the continent at the end of the nineteenth century. On the other hand, the movement claimed a third position in the context of the Cold War and was a defender of the idea of Latin Americanism. See: Martín Ribadero, Tiempo de profetas. Ideas, debates y labor cultural de la izquierda nacional de Jorge Abelardo Ramos (1945–1962) (Bernal: Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, 2017).

⁹ See ‘Colección Trías’ on the GEIPAR website: http://www.geipar.udelar.edu.uy/index.php/2018/10/03/coleccion-trias (accessed 20 May 2019).

¹⁰ Real wages in urban areas achieved levels similar to those of Europe. The country’s population was predominantly urban, with a literacy rate of 91.3% and a primary school enrolment of about 90%.

¹¹ Roberto García Ferreira, ‘Espionaje y política: la guerra fría y la inteligencia policial uruguaya, 1947–64’, Revista de Historia (Costa Rica) 63–64 (2012): 13–33.

¹² See Instituto de Economía, El Uruguay del siglo XX, La economía (Montevideo: Banda Oriental, 2003), 29; and Germán Rama, La democracia en Uruguay (Buenos Aires: Cuadernos del. Rial, Grupo Editor Latinoamericano, 1987), 75.

¹³ For more on tercerismo, see Mark Van Aken, Los militantes: Una historia del movimiento estudiantil universitario uruguayo desde los orígenes hasta 1966 (Montevideo: FCU, 1990).

¹⁴ Jimena Alonso, Uruguayos mirando Chile: el problema de la unidad de la izquierda y el acceso al poder por la vía electoral (1956–1971) (Master’s thesis, FaHCE-UNLP, La Plata, 2017); Gerardo Giudice, Frugoni (Montevideo: Proyección, 1995); and Fernando Pedrosa,La otra izquierda: la socialdemocracia en América Latina (Buenos Aires: Capital Intelectual, 2012).

¹⁵ For the intellectual value of Trías’s work, see Ruben Cotelo, ‘Vivían Trías: Los años de formación y aprendizaje’, in Uruguay y sus claves geopolíticas, ed. Vivian Trías (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1991); and Carlos Real de Azúa, Antología del ensayo uruguayo contemporáneo (Montevideo: Universidad de la República, 1964), vol. 2: 580–5.

¹⁶ See Horacio Tarcus, El Marxismo olvidado en la Argentina: Silvio Frondizi y Milcíades Peña (Buenos Aires: Ediciones El Cielo por Asalto, 1996).

¹⁷ See ‘Carta a Jorge Abelardo Ramos por Alberto Methol Ferre’, 14 November 1957, http://jorgeabelardoramos.com (accessed 2 March 2019).

¹⁸ Real de Azúa, Antología del ensayo uruguayo contemporáneo, 584.

¹⁹ Vivian Trías, El Partido Socialista y la crisis de la industria frigorífica (Montevideo: Partido Socialista, 1958); Vivian Trías, El imperialismo en el Uruguay (Montevideo: FEUU, 1958); Vivian Trías, Reforma agraria en el Uruguay (Montevideo: Ediciones El Sol, 1961); and Vivian Trías, El plan Kennedy y la revolución latinoamericana (Montevideo: Ediciones El Sol, 1961).

²⁰ Vivian Trías, Las montoneras y el Imperio Británico (Montevideo: Ediciones Uruguay, 1961); Vivian Trías, Por un socialismo nacional (Montevideo: Ediciones El Sol, 1967); and Vivian Trías, Juan Manuel de Rosas (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1970).

²¹ See Vivian Trías, ‘Enigma para Poznan’, El Sol, 10 July 1956; and Vivian Trías ‘La respuesta del pueblo polaco y los méritos del marxismo’, El Sol, 26 October 1956.

²² ‘Tras regreso de Cuba: Fidel un hombre extraordinario’, El Sol, 26 January 1962.

²³ Ibid.

²⁴ Ibid.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Vivian Trías, ‘La política de la revolución cubana’, El Sol, 18 October 1963.

²⁷ Vivian Trías, ‘La crisis del imperio’, in Obras de Vivían Trías, vol. 13 (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1989), 27.

²⁸ See Eduardo Rey Tristán, A la vuelta de la esquina: La izquierda revolucionaria uruguaya 1959–1973 (Montevideo: Ediciones Fin de Siglo, 2006).

²⁹ Vivian Trías, Perú: Fuerzas Armadas y Revolución (Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1971). This focus continued into the 1970s. For a general overview see Vivian Trías, ‘Las Fuerzas Armadas en las sociedades iberoamericanas’, Nueva Sociedad 49 (1980): 113–33.

³⁰ See Vivian Trías, ‘Izquierda ante la invasion: El fantasma de Stalin’, Izquierda, 8 September 1968, 7.

³¹ Michal Zourek, ‘Czechoslovakia and Latin America’s Guerrilla Insurgencies: Secret Services, Training Networks, Mobility, and Transportation’, in Toward a Global History of Latin America’s Revolutionary Left, eds. Tanya Harmer and Alberto Martín Álvarez (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2021), 27–66. Hana Bortlová, Československo a Kuba v letech 1959–1962 (Prague: Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze, 2011).

³² The term comes from the dictionary of Soviet intelligence. A residentura was an intelligence base set up in a foreign country. These bases were generally located in the embassies or consulates and its officers were given diplomatic credentials.

³³ In the 1950s and 1960s, Prague thus often paved the way for other socialist countries, whose positions were not as strong: Josef Opatrný and others, Las relaciones entre Checoslovaquia y América Latina 1945–1989 en los archivos de la República Checa (Prague: Karolinum, 2015); and Michal Zourek, Checoslovaquia y el Cono Sur 1945–1989. Relaciones políticas, económicas y culturales durante la Guerra Fría (Prague: Karolinum, 2014).

³⁴ See Daniela Spenser, ‘The Caribbean Crisis: Catalyst for Soviet Projection in Latin America’, in Joseph M. Gilbert and Daniela Spenser, eds., In from the Cold: Latin American’s New Encounter with the Cold War (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), 77–111. James G. Blight and Philip Brenner, Sad and Luminous Days: Cuba’s Struggle with the Superpowers after the Missile Crisis (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), 27–8.

³⁵ Zápis z jednání mezi KGB při Radě ministrů SSSR a ministerstva vnitra ČSSR o výsledcích a dalším rozšíření spolupráce při koordinování rozvědných a kontrarozvědných opatření a o společném provádění těchto opatření, 26.–30 June 1961, I. SMV, Archiv bezpečnostních složek (ABS), Prague, Czech Republic.

³⁶ Plán práce residentury v Montevideu na r. 1961, I. správa SNB, 80650, ABS.

³⁷ ‘Active measures’ was a term used by the secret services and it is of Russian origin (Aktivnoje meroprijatija). It refers to any secret activity aimed at weakening or confusing the enemy, for example, by means of scandals, defamation, demonstrations or riots. Along with providing access to specific information, ‘active measures’ represented the main task of Czechoslovak intelligence and were its key work method.

³⁸ See Založení rezidentury při čs. vyslanectví v Montevideu – Uruguay, 2 November 1960, I. SMV, 11381/000, ABS. Another source stresses the favourable conditions resulting from the nature of the regime in Uruguay. See Philip Agee, La CIA por dentro: Diario de un espía (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1975).

³⁹ Zápis z jednání mezi KGB při Radě ministrů SSSR a ministerstva vnitra ČSSR o výsledcích a dalším rozšíření spolupráce při koordinování rozvědných a kontrarozvědných opatření a o společném provádění těchto opatření, 26.–30 June 1961, SMV, ABS.

⁴⁰ Směrnice pro agenturně operativní práci v zahraničí, August 1964, I. SMV, ABS; AO Družba, October 1964,43943/000, I. SMV, ABS.

⁴¹ Plán práce referátu Uruguay na rok 1962, 12 January 1962, I. správa SNB, 80758/013, ABS.

⁴² Zpráva do Montevidea č. 17/Bar ze dne 3. 8. 1961, I. správa SNB, 80650, ABS.

⁴³ Ibid.

⁴⁴ Rey – záznam ze schůzek dne 15. 5. a 25. 5. 1962, 26. 5. 1962, I. správa SNB, 11498/300, ABS.

⁴⁵ In the 1990s, Gros Espiell served as Foreign Affairs Minister and later Uruguayan Ambassador to France.

⁴⁶ I. správa SNB, 11500/302, ABS.

⁴⁷ These připomínek pro poradu residentů, 18 August 1961, I. správa SNB, 80650, ABS.

⁴⁸ Trías – záznam ze schůzek, 1 November 1961, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁴⁹ Memorandum, 6 May 1964, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁵⁰ Návrh na verbovku uruguayského státního příslušníka, 4 May 1964, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁵¹ Směrnice pro agenturně operativní práci v zahraničí, August 1964, 19–20, I. SMV, ABS.

⁵² Záznam o verbovečném pohovoru s Ríosem, 22 June 1964, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁵³ Návrh na verbovku, op. cit., I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁵⁴ Ríos, 11 January 1965, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁵⁵ Styky agenta Ríose, April 1968, I. SMV, 43943/021, ABS.

⁵⁶ Vyhodnocení spolupráce září 1976–červen 1977, 20 June 1977, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁵⁷ Ríos – záznam ze schůzek, 11 May 1964, ABS, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁵⁸ Ríos – záznam ze schůzek, 13 January 1964, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁵⁹ Vyhodnocení dosavadní spolupráce s agentem RIOSem před předáním druhému ŘO, 7 May 1965, I. SMV, ABS.

⁶⁰ José Díaz, Garabed Arakelian, and Eduardo Aparicio, interview conducted by the authors, Montevideo, February 2018, September 2018 and September 2019.

⁶¹ Memorandum, 5. May 1964, I. SMV,

⁶² Vyhodnocení dosavadní, op. cit, I. SMV, ABS.

⁶³ Záznam o schůzkách, May 1966, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁶⁴ Vyhodnocení spolupráce, 18 October 1968, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁶⁵ For example, damage to the family home caused by a storm, the geographic location of their cottage, a heart attack suffered by his father, and gifts from the StB such as a television set and an electric toy: all of this information contained in the StB files has been rejected as false by Trías’s son. Facundo Trías, interview conducted by the authors, Las Piedras, September 2019.

⁶⁶ Ríos – záznam ze schůzek, 22 November 1963, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁶⁷ Ríos – záznam ze schůzek, 8 August 1963, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁶⁸ AO LUK – zhodnocení, 18 January 1971, I. SMV, 43943/023, ABS.

⁶⁹ 2 April 1963, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁷⁰ Ríos – záznam ze schůzek, 3 June 1963, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁷¹ Vyhodnocení dosavadní, op. cit., I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁷² Vyhodnocení spolupráce, 18 October 1968, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁷³ For another approach on this, see, Fernando López D’Alesandro, ‘Las intenciones checoslovacas, la lucha armada y la banca de Vivian Trías’, La Diaria, 14 April 2018.

⁷⁴ Ríos – záznam ze schůzky dne, 30 March 1964, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁷⁵ Ríos – záznam ze schůzek, 7 August 1964, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁷⁶ Ríos, 16 October 1964, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁷⁷ AO Družba, October 1964, ABS, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁷⁸ Ríos, 11 January 1965, I. SMV, 43943/020, ABS.

⁷⁹ Ibid.

⁸⁰ AO Inka, November 1969, I. SMV, 43943/022, ABS.

⁸¹ AO INKA, 19 March 1970, I. SMV, 43943/022, ABS.

⁸² AO Javor – zhodnocení, 18 January 1971, I. SMV, 43943/023, ABS.

⁸³ Provedení operace INKA II, 10 March 1971, I. SMV, 43943/023, ABS.

⁸⁴ 17 May 1971, I. SMV, 43943/023, ABS.

⁸⁵ 18 October 1971, I. SMV, 43943/023, ABS.

⁸⁶ Vyhodnocení spolupráce, 9 August 1971, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁸⁷ Výpis ze zprávy č. 19/Se do Montevidea ze dne 3 December 1963, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁸⁸ Vyhodnocení spolupráce, 9 August 1971, I. SMV, 43943/000, ABS.

⁸⁹ Fernando López D’Alesandro argues that Soviet influence can be found in Trías’s Tres fases del capitalismo, a draft that was not published in his lifetime. However, a first reading of the text clearly reveals that it is underpinned primarily by the dependency theory and the third world system approaches that were being developed at the time. See López D’ Alesandro, Vivian Trías. El hombre que fue Ríos, 348.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies of Mendel University [FRRMS_IGA_2021/003].

Notes on contributors

Aldo Marchesi

Aldo Marchesi received his Ph.D. from New York University in 2012 and teaches history at the Universidad de la República (Montevideo, Uruguay). He works in the Uruguayan Interdisciplinary Studies Center (CEIU), a specialized center on the Uruguayan Recent History. He has published widely on the recent history and collective memory of Uruguay and the Southern Cone. His most recent publication is Latin America´s Radical Left. Rebellion and Cold War in the Global 1960s (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018).

Michal Zourek

Michal Zourek holds a PhD from Charles University in Prague. He did postdoctoral research at the Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana Dr. Emilio Ravignani (UBA/CONICET), Buenos Aires. He works in the Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic. His research focuses on secret services, cultural policies, and intellectual history.