Welcome to Santiago. Commercial aviation relations between Chile and the socialist countries, 1970–1973

ABSTRACT

This study analyses why Cuba, the Soviet Union, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia attempted to establish air transport agreements with Chile, as well as their objectives and those of their airlines. It also examines the response of the Allende government and other Chilean key actors. The paper shows that the interest in signing these agreements lay in the Socialist bloc countries. Their reasons varied depending on their particular situation and foreign policy goals. By contrast, Chile saw the negotiation of agreements as a means of strengthening its ties with the Soviet bloc.

KEYWORDS:

• Cold War
• commercial aviation
• Chile
• Cuba
• Soviet Union

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Carla Cisternas and Diego Romero for their comments and help in gathering data from Chilean archives, to Luis Barría for facilitating access to Granma and to Anna Shchegoleva for identifying and translating Soviet sources. We are also grateful to María José Henríquez and Francisco Castañeda for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ Chamber of Deputies, 14th extraordinary session, 19 July 1973, 1038–89.

² Jeffrey A. Engel, Cold War at 30,000 Feet: The Anglo-American Fight for Aviation Supremacy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007); and Philip Muehlenbeck, Czechoslovakia in Africa, 1945–68 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2016).

³ Michal M. Kobierecki, ‘Aviation Diplomacy: A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing the Relationship Between Aviation and International Relations’, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 17, no. 4 (2021): 293–303. A noteworthy exception is Phil Tiemeyer, ‘Launching a Nonaligned Airline: JAT Yugoslav Airways between East, West, and South, 1947–1962’, Diplomatic History 41, no. 1 (2017): 78–103.

⁴ Joaquín Fermandois, Chile y el mundo 1970–3: La política exterior del gobierno de la Unidad Popular y el sistema internacional (Santiago: Ediciones UC, 1985); Edy Kaufman, ‘La política exterior de la Unidad Popular chilena’, Foro Internacional 17, no. 2 (1976): 244–74; Jorge Vera, La política exterior chilena durante el gobierno del presidente Salvador Allende, 1970–3 (Santiago: IERIC, 1987); Joseph Nogee and John Sloan, ‘Allende’s Chile and the Soviet Union: A Policy Lesson for Latin American Nations Seeking Autonomy’, Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 21, no. 3 (1979): 339–68; Isabel Turrent, La Unión Soviética en América Latina: el caso de la Unidad Popular chilena, 1970–3 (México, D.F.: El Colegio de México, 1984); Olga Ulianova, ‘La Unidad Popular y el golpe militar en Chile: Percepciones y análisis soviéticos’, Estudios Publicos 79 (2000): 83–171; Radobovslav Yordanov, ‘Warsaw Pact Countries’ Involvement in Chile from Frei to Pinochet, 1964–73’, Journal of Cold War Studies 21, no. 3 (2019): 56–87; and Tanya Harmer, El gobierno de Allende y la Guerra Fría Interamericana (Santiago: Ediciones UDP, 2013).

⁵ For example, Luis Garrido, La ‘vía chilena’ al socialismo (1970–3): Un itinerario geohistórico de la Unidad Popular en el sistema mundo (Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 2015).

⁶ Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007); Harmer, El gobierno de Allende; Tanya Harmer and Alfredo Riquelme, eds., Chile y la Guerra Fría Global (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2014); Marcelo Casals, ‘“Chile en la encrucijada”: Anticomunismo y propaganda en la “Campaña de terror” de las elecciones presidenciales de 1964’, in Chile y la Guerra, ed. Tanya Harmer and Alfredo Riquelme, 89–112; Raffaele Nocera, ‘La “Relación triangular” Estados Unidos-Italia-Chile y la elección de Eduardo Frei Montalva’, in Chile y la Guerra, ed. Tanya Harmer and Alfredo Riquelme, 113–32; Alessandro Santoni, ‘El Partido Comunista italiano, la lección de Chile y la lógica de los bloques’, in Chile y la Guerra, ed. Tanya Harmer and Alfredo Riquelme, 133–54 ; and Tanya Harmer, ‘Towards a Global History of the Unidad Popular’, Radical Americas 9, no. 5 (2021), https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.ra.2021.v6.1.004 (accessed 18 July 2022).

⁷ Theodora K. Dragostinova, The Cold War from the Margins: A Small Socialist State on the Global Cultural Scene (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021).

⁸ See Turrent, La Unión Soviética en América Latina; Harmer, El gobierno de Allende; and Yordanov, ‘“Warsaw Pact Countries’” Involvement’.

⁹ Alberto van Klaveren, ‘Doscientos años de política exterior de Chile: De Hobbes a Grocio’, in La política exterior de Chile, 1990–2009, ed. Mario Artaza and César Ross (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2012), 51–70; and Walter Sánchez, ‘Las tendencias sobresalientes de la política exterior chilena’, in 150 años de política exterior chilena, ed. Walter Sánchez and Teresa Pereira (Santiago: Editorial Universitaria, 1977), 374–415.

¹⁰ Raúl Bernal-Meza, Historia de las Relaciones Internacionales de Chile, 1810–2020 (Santiago: RIL Editores, 2020); and Manfred Wilhelmy, ‘Hacia un análisis de la política exterior chilena contemporánea’, Estudios Internacionales 12, no. 48 (1979): 440–71.

¹¹ Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (MINREL), Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exterior de Chile (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos La Nación, 1944), 123–5.

¹² Cristián Garay, Ángel Soto, and Valeska Troncoso, ‘Política internacional y política doméstica en Gabriel González Videla, 1946–52: La sombra de la Guerra Fría’, Cuadernos de Historia no. 44 (2016): 81–100; and Carlos Huneeus, La Guerra Fría chilena: Gabriel González Videla y la ley maldita (Santiago: Editorial Debate, 2009).

¹³ MINREL, Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exterior de Chile (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos La Nación, 1951), 20–1.

¹⁴ Carlos Martínez, La política exterior del Presidente Alessandri. Lecture delivered at Homenaje al Expresidente Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez en el Instituto de Chile. Santiago, 8 September 1986.

¹⁵ Otto Boye, ‘La política exterior chilena entre 1964 y 1970’, Estudios Sociales no. 3 (1974): 48–66.

¹⁶ Sebastián Hurtado, The Gathering Storm: Eduardo Frei’s Revolution in Liberty and Chile’s Cold War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020); and Manfred Wilhelmy, ‘Chilean Foreign Policy: The Frei Government, 1964–70’ (PhD Diss. , Princeton University, 1976).

¹⁷ MINREL, Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exterior de Chile (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos La Nación, 1964), 44.

¹⁸ MINREL, Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exterior de Chile (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos La Nación, 1965), 163.

¹⁹ Ibid., 167.

²⁰ MINREL, Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exterior de Chile (Santiago: Talleres Gráficos La Nación, 1966), 334–5.

²¹ Unidad Popular, Programa Básico de Gobierno de la Unidad Popular: Candidatura Presidencial de Salvador Allende (Santiago: n.p., 1970).

²² Harmer, El gobierno de Allende; and Joaquín Fermandois, Mundo y fin de mundo: Chile en la política mundial 1900–2004 (Santiago: Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile, 2005), 383.

²³ ‘Decisión histórica: restablecidas las relaciones con Cuba’, El Siglo, 13 November 1970.

²⁴ ‘LAN eleva las alas hacia el futuro’, El Siglo, 30 April 1971.

²⁵ Vera, La política exterior chilena.

²⁶ Turrent, La Unión Soviética; Ulianova, ‘La Unidad Popular’; Fermandois, Chile y el mundo; and Kaufman, ‘La política exterior de la Unidad Popular chilena’.

²⁷ ‘Firmado Convenio Cultural y Científico entre Chile y la URSS’, El Siglo, 3 December 1970.

²⁸ Turrent, La Unión Soviética; and Ulianova, ‘La Unidad Popular’.

²⁹ ‘Amplia colaboración técnica y crediticia ofrece la RDA’, El Siglo, 25 December 1970.

³⁰ ‘Hoy inicia labor misión comercial cubana’, El Siglo, 21 January 1971.

³¹ ‘Ampliaremos relaciones con la URSS’, El Siglo, 3 February 1971.

³² ‘Relaciones con la RDA’, El Siglo, April 8, 1971; and ‘Iniciadas conversaciones entre delegaciones de Chile y la RDA’, El Siglo, 27 April 1971.

³³ ‘Gobierno yugoslavo ofrece cooperación a Chile’, El Siglo, 9 May 1971; and ‘Hoy se inicia trascendental gira a países socialistas: convenios comerciales, ayuda técnica y créditos tratará el canciller Almeyda’, El Siglo, 15 May 1971.

³⁴ ‘Relaciones chileno-rumanas: plena igualdad de derechos y ventaja mutua’, El Siglo, 24 May 1971.

³⁵ ‘Cordial acogida a Almeyda en la URSS’, El Siglo, 27 May 1971.

³⁶ ‘Crédito de 20 millones concedió Bulgaria a Chile’, El Siglo, 3 June 1971.

³⁷ ‘Clodomiro Almeyda inició visita a Checoslovaquia’, El Siglo, 6 June 1971; ‘Almeyda destaca el éxito de su viaje’, El Siglo, 13 June 1971; and ‘Chile y Polonia firmaron acuerdo comercial’, El Siglo, 15 June 1971.

³⁸ ‘Más de 20 industrias harán en Chile los países socialistas’, El Siglo, 23 June 1971.

³⁹ ‘Acuerdos comerciales y de cooperación científica firmados entre la RDA y Chile’, El Siglo, 28 July 1971; and ‘Acuerdos de cooperación firmaron Chile y la RDA’, El Siglo, 18 December 1971.

⁴⁰ ‘Ayer partió a Cuba el canciller Almeyda’, El Siglo, 26 July 1971; and ‘Convenios entre Chile y Checoslovaquia’, El Siglo, 5 November 1971.

⁴¹ ‘Acuerdos de cooperación técnica y económica entre Hungría y Chile’, El Siglo, 15 September 1971.

⁴² ‘Cuatro importantes acuerdos firmaron Chile y Bulgaria’, El Siglo, 30 June 1972; ‘Firmado convenio chileno-búlgaro’, El Siglo, 15 April 1973; and ‘Continúan trabajos de comisión chileno-búlgara’, El Siglo, 26 May 1973.

⁴³ ‘Checoslovaquia concedió créditos por 20 millones de dólares a Chile’, El Siglo, 17 February 1973. See Michael Zourek, Checoslovaquia y el Cono Sur 1945–89. Relaciones políticas, económicas y culturales durante la Guerra Fría (Prague: Karolinum, 2014); and Yordanov, ‘“Warsaw Pact Countries’” Involvement’.

⁴⁴ Stefan de Vlyder, Allende’s Chile: The Political Economy and the Rise and Fall of the Unidad Popular (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 63.

⁴⁵ Turrent, La Unión Soviética.

⁴⁶ ‘Presidente Allende recibe hoy a misión económica soviética’, El Siglo, 27 January 1972.

⁴⁷ ‘El acuerdo económico Chile-URSS’, El Siglo, 17 February 1972.

⁴⁸ ‘Firmado acuerdo de cooperación técnica chileno-soviética’, El Siglo, 5 March 1972.

⁴⁹ ‘Convenios económicos chileno-soviéticos’, El Siglo, 7 July 1972.

⁵⁰ Turrent, La Unión Soviética; and de Vlyder, Allende´s Chile.

⁵¹ Harmer, El gobierno de Allende.

⁵² Turrent, La Unión Soviética.

⁵³ Vera, La política exterior chilena; and Scott W. Palmer, Dictatorship of the Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

⁵⁴ David Jones, ‘The Rise and Fall of Aeroflot: Civil Aviation in the Soviet Union, 1920–91’, in Russian Aviation and Air Power in the Twentieth Century, ed. Robin Higham, John Greenwood, and Von Hardersty (London and Oregon: Frank Cass, 1998), 236–68.

⁵⁵ David Mackenzie, ICAO: A History of the International Civil Aviation Organization (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010).

⁵⁶ Hans Jr. Heymann, ‘The Soviet Role in International Civil Aviation’, Journal of Air Law and Commerce 25, no. 3 (1958): 265–80.

⁵⁷ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Czechoslovakian Airline Fluctuations under Ten Years of Communist Control (1958), CIA-RDP61S00527A0002000120037-3, Office of Research and Reports.

⁵⁸ See Tiemeyer, ‘Launching a Nonaligned Airline’.

⁵⁹ J. Wilford Rizika, ‘Commercial Air Transportation in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics’, Journal of Air Law and Commerce 20, no. 2 (1953): 127–39.

⁶⁰ Vladimir Pechatnov, ‘Reflections on Soviet Foreign Policy, 1953–1964’, in Peaceful Coexistence? Soviet Union and Sweden in the Khrushchev Era, ed. Helene Carlbäck, Alexey Komarov, and Karl Molin (Moscow: Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, Institute for Universal History, 2010), 23–44; and Nikita S. Khrushchev, ‘On Peaceful Coexistence’, Foreign Affairs 38, no. 1 (1959): 1–18.

⁶¹ Westad, The Global Cold War.

⁶² Muehlenbeck, Czechoslovakia in Africa; and Philip Muehlenbeck and Natalia Telepneva, ‘Introduction’, in Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World, ed. Philip Muehlenbeck and Natalia Telepnova (London: Bloomsbury, 2018), 1–22.

⁶³ ‘Airlink between New York and Moscow Agreed’, Financial Times, 3 November 1966.

⁶⁴ CIA, Policies and Capabilities of Czechoslovak Civil Aviation (1958), CIA/RR 143, CIA-RDP79R01141A001200010002-4.

⁶⁵ Heymann, ‘The Soviet Role’.

⁶⁶ CIA, Czechoslovakia’s International Civil Airline (1973), Office of Economic Research, CIA-RDP79T01098A000100040001-1.

⁶⁷ Sergei Sikorsky, Aeroflot, The Soviet Airline - A Condensed Historical Survey (1963), CIA-RDP80T00246A023500390001-8; and Hugh MacDonald, Aeroflot Soviet Air Transport since 1923 (London: Putnam, 1975).

⁶⁸ Harriett E. Porch, ‘Aeroflot, The Soviet Airline – At Home and Abroad’, Journal of Air Law and Commerce 30, no. 2 (1964): 193–206.

⁶⁹ Николай Никитин, Евгений Прозоров & Борис Тутыхин, Экономическая География СССР (Мoscow: Издательство «Просвещение», 1966).

⁷⁰ ‘Директивы XXIII Съезда КПСС по Пятилетнему Плану развития народного хозяйства СССР на 1966–70 годы, 29 марта – 8 апреля 1966 г., Москва, Резолюции и Постановления XXIII Съезда по Отчетному Докладу Центрального Комитета КПСС’, in В Резолюциях и решениях съездов, конференций и пленумов ПК. 1961–5, Институт Марксизма-Ленинизма, ed. (Мoscow: Политиздат, 1986), 58; Sikorsky, Aeroflot, The Soviet; Aleksandr F. Aksenov, Civil Aviation of the USSR(1974), Foreign Technology Division, AD-783 051, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

⁷¹ ‘Aeroflot Plans for 38M Seats’, Financial Times, 7 April 1964; ‘Aeroflot Carried 42M. in Eight Months’, Financial Times, 3 September 1965.

⁷² Heymann, ‘The Soviet Role’.

⁷³ MacDonald, Aeroflot Soviet Air.

⁷⁴ Heymann, ‘The Soviet Role’.

⁷⁵ CIA, Czechoslovakian Airline Fluctuations; and ‘No Jets to Moscow’, The Economist, 26 August 1961.

⁷⁶ Westad, The Global Cold; Alfredo Riquelme, ‘La Guerra Fría en Chile: los intrincados nexos entre lo nacional y lo global’, in Chile y la Guerra, ed. Harmer and Riquelme, 11–44; and Muehlenbeck and Telepneva, ‘Introduction’.

⁷⁷ ‘VIII. Мирное сосуществование и борьба за всеобщий мир, 17–31 октября 1961 г., Москва. Резолюции и Постановления XXII Съезда КПСС’, in В Резолюциях и постановлениях, Институт Марксизма-Ленинизма, 124.

⁷⁸ CIA, Policies and Capabilities.

⁷⁹ Muehlenbeck, Czechoslovakia in Africa; and ‘Russian Airliners for Ghana’, Financial Times, 19 August 1960.

⁸⁰ CIA, Soviet Bloc Civil Aviation Activities in Africa (1963), CIA-RDP79T01049A002900050002-3.

⁸¹ Muehlenbeck, Czechoslovakia in Africa.

⁸² CIA, Civil Air Routes of Communist Countries into the Free World, Winter 1965–6 (1966), CIA-RDP79S01046A001000080001-2.

⁸³ CIA, Soviet Bloc Civil Aviation Activities in Africa.

⁸⁴ Ibid.

⁸⁵ CIA, Civil Air Routes of Communist Countries into the Free World, Winter 1965–6.

⁸⁶ CIA, Communist International Civil Air Activities in the Free World since 1965 (1968), CIA-RDP85T00875R001600010078-5; Jones, ‘The Rise and Fall of Aeroflot’; ‘Airlink between New York and Moscow agreed’, Financial Times, 3 November 1966; ‘Opening up Siberia to Western Airlines?’, Financial Times, 14 February 1967; ‘High Penetration of Soviet Air Services’, Financial Times, 16 September 1968; ‘Siberian Air Route Opens’, Financial Times, 2 June 1970; and ‘A Yank in Moscow’, The Economist, 20 July 1968.

⁸⁷ CIA, Czechoslovakia’s International Civil Airline.

⁸⁸ CIA, Informal US-Hungarian Civil Aviation Discussions (1970), CIA-RDP85T00875R001600030055-8.

⁸⁹ ‘Aeroflot´s Ambitions’, The Economist, 21 August 1965.

⁹⁰ ‘Russia in Supersonic Airliner Race’, Financial Times, 18 December 1962.

⁹¹ CIA, Communist International Civil Air Activities in the Free World since 1965.

⁹² Porch, ‘Aeroflot, The Soviet’; and CIA, Cuba: Expanding International Civil Air Service (1971), CIA-RDP85T00875R001700020067-5.

⁹³ Jenifer Van Vleck, Empire of the Air: Aviation and the American Ascendancy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013).

⁹⁴ Diego Barría, ‘“An Absolutely Chilean Institution” Línea Aérea Nacional, Chile (1929–45)’, The Journal of Transport History 40, no. 1 (2019): 8–24.

⁹⁵ Senate, 32^nd ordinary session, 2 September 1947.

⁹⁶ Duberildo Jaque, La aeronavegación comercial en Chile (Santiago: n.p., 1949); Barría, ‘“An Absolutely Chilean”’; Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 1, 7 April 1948; Decision 7, 12 May 1948; Decision 8, 12 May 1948; Decision 12, 2 June 1948; Decision 54, 13 August 1949; Decision 65, 28 September 1949.

⁹⁷ Barría, ‘An Absolutely Chilean’.

⁹⁸ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 25, 12 January 1949.

⁹⁹ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 118, 13 July 1950; Decision 130, 24 October 1950; Decision 427, 24 January 1957; Decision 450, 26 June 1957; Decision 534, 13 March 1958; Decision 536, 27 March 1958; Decision 545, 28 May 1958; Decision 546, 7 June 1958; Decision 720, 14 October 1959.

¹⁰⁰ Diego Barría and Diego Romero, ‘La batalla por los cielos. La competencia público-privada en el sector aerocomercial en Chile, 1948–59’, Historia 55, no. 1 (2022): 295–328.

¹⁰¹ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 761, 3 May 1960; Decision 884, 13 July 1961; Decision 900, 14 August 1961; Decision 929, 5 October 1961; Decision 999, 10 April 1962; Decision 30 April 1399, 1965; Decision, 1500, 21 March 1966; Decision 1622, 8 May 1967; Decision 1628, 10 May 1967; Decision 1687, 6 Novembe 1967; and Línea Aérea Nacional, Memoria, 1965–70, CORFO, LAN Chile, Vol. 1712, Archivo Nacional de la Administración [ARNAD], Santiago, Chile.

¹⁰² Línea Aérea del Cobre (Ladeco), Memoria 1970–1 (Santiago: Ladeco, 1972).

¹⁰³ Carlos Tello, ’México Frente a la expulsión de Cuba de la OEA’, Politeja, no. 38 (2015): 243–56.

¹⁰⁴ Yordanov, ‘“Warsaw Pact Countries” Involvement’.

¹⁰⁵ Turrent, La Unión Soviética; and Harmer, El gobierno de Allende.

¹⁰⁶ Etienne Morales, ‘“Un Orgullo de Cuba En Los Cielos Del Mundo”, Cubana de Aviación from Miami to Bagdad (1946–79)’, The Journal of Transport History 40, no. 1 (2019): 62–81.

¹⁰⁷ CIA, Cuba: Expanding International Civil Air Service.

¹⁰⁸ Strictly confidential, Havana (10 December 1970), Fondo Países, Cuba 11, RIE N° 2/1, Archivo Histórico del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores [AHMRE], Santiago, Chile.

¹⁰⁹ Harmer, El gobierno de Allende, 116.

¹¹⁰ From Minister to Business Chargé d’Affaires of Chile in Cuba (3 March 1971). Fondo Países, Cuba 12, DRI-DAE NO. 6, AHMRE; and ‘Hoy se firma el convenio de aeronavegación con Cuba’, El Siglo, 25 February 1971.

¹¹¹ Minister to Secretary-General of JAC (21 June 1971), Fondo Ministerios, Vol. 296, AT No. 12486, AHMRE.

¹¹² Morales, ‘Un Orgullo de Cuba’; and Aerograma confidencial – Santiago a Embajada en La Habana (10 May 1971), Fondo Países, Cuba 13, DRI-DAE N° 21, AHMRE.

¹¹³ ‘El próximo sábado: Cubana de Aviación inaugura sus vuelos a nuestra capital’, El Siglo, 20 June 1971; and Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 20 August 1999, 1971.

¹¹⁴ Morales, ‘Un Orgullo de Cuba’; and ‘Concede la URSS medios y equipos para la base material de cubano de la aviación civil cubana’, Granma, 23 October 1973.

¹¹⁵ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 2040, 3 May 1972; Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 2105, 27 August 1973.

¹¹⁶ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 2028, 24 April 1973.

¹¹⁷ ‘En tres meses más se podrá viajar a Cuba desde Chile’, El Siglo, 27 February 1971; and, Letter from LAN’s Lawyer for International Affairs to Secretary-General of JAC (3 March 1971), JAC, Vol. 6, OF 27–71, ARNAD.

¹¹⁸ ‘En vuelo inaugural de LAN: profesionales chilenos viajaron a Cuba’, El Siglo, 18 July 1971.

¹¹⁹ Harmer, El gobierno de Allende; and Minister to President of LAN (3 July 1971), Fondo Ministerios, Vol. 296, Estrictamente confidencial n° 292, AHMRE.

¹²⁰ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Sesión 1291 ordinaria, 2 August 1971, 1–2.

¹²¹ Harmer, El gobierno de Allende, 170.

¹²² Cuba 13, From Minister to Ambassador in Cuba (28 March 1972), Confidencial DRI-DAE No. 871/7, AHMRHE; CIA, Cuba: Expanding International Civil Air Service.

¹²³ ‘Convenio aéreo con Cuba’, El Mercurio, 2 March 1971.

¹²⁴ Calculated by author based on official information from JAC, obtained through request for access to information AN003T0000200.

¹²⁵ ‘Diputados UP renuncian a comisión del avión cubano’, El Siglo, 9 June 1972.

¹²⁶ Chamber of Deputies, 14^th extraordinary session, 19 July 1973, 1089.

¹²⁷ Ibid., 345.

¹²⁸ Secretary-General of JAC to President of LAN (4 October 1973), JAC, Vol. 18, Oficio confidencial 1247, ARNAD; ‘Convenio aéreo Cuba-Barbados’, Granma, 14 December 1973; Morales, ‘“Un Orgullo de Cuba”’.

¹²⁹ Ambassador in Moscow to Foreign Minister (15 May 1970), Fondo Países, Rusia 23, N° 95, AHMRE.

¹³⁰ Memorandum for: Dr. Henry Kisssinger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. Subject: Chilean Facilitation of Subversive Activities in Latin America. From R.E. Cushman, Jr. Lieutenant General, 10 (18 December 1970), 449, Department of State, FOIA Room. https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/home

¹³¹ From Minister to Secretary-General of JAC (12 February 1971), Fondo Países, Rusia, 26, DRI-DAE no. 2827, AHMRE.

¹³² Secretary-General of JAC to Minister (3 March 1971), Fondo Ministerios, Vol. 297, Oficio 270, AHMRE.

¹³³ Confidential Aerogramme 9 (24 March 1971), Fondo Países, Rusia 25, AHMRE.

¹³⁴ Confidential, From Minister to Secretary-General of JAC (30 September 1971), Fondo Ministerios, Vol. 297, DRI-DAE 417, AHMRE.

¹³⁵ Secretary-General of JAC to Foreign Minister (15 October 1971), Fondo Ministerios, Vol. 297 Memo 1443, AHMRE.

¹³⁶ Confidential – From Minister to Secretary-General of JAC (27 October 1971), Fondo Ministerios, Vol. 297, DRI-DAE 454, AHMRE.

¹³⁷ Letter from LAN’s Lawyer for International Affairs to Secretary-General of JAC (20 October 1971), JAC, Vol. 7, Memo 96–71, ARNAD.

¹³⁸ ‘Aeroflot volará Santiago-Moscú’, El Mercurio, 7 March 1972.

¹³⁹ Confidential – Telex (25 November 1971), Fondo Países, Rusia 23, DRI-DAE N° 108, AHMRE.

¹⁴⁰ MINREL, Memoria del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Santiago: MINREL, 1972).

¹⁴¹ ‘Estudian vuelo Santiago-Moscú’, El Mercurio, 14 March, 1972.

¹⁴² Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, session 1341, 26 June 1972.

¹⁴³ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 2974, 8 December 1972.

¹⁴⁴ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, Decision 2095, 15 May 1973.

¹⁴⁵ Calculated by author based on official information from JAC, obtained through request for access to information AN003T0000200.

¹⁴⁶ MacDonald, Aeroflot, 268.

¹⁴⁷ From Secretary-General of JAC to President of LAN (20 August 1973), JAC, Vol. 18, Memo 1029, ARNAD.

¹⁴⁸ CIA, Trends in Soviet Civil Aviation (September 1975), CIA-RDP79T01098A000600040004-3.

¹⁴⁹ From Ambassador in Buenos Aires to Foreign Minister, Prague (27 May 1970), Fondo Países, Checoslovaquia 10, N° 241/163, AHMRE.

¹⁵⁰ Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, session 1274, 26 April 1971.

¹⁵¹ Zourek, Checoslovaquia y el Cono Sur 1945–89; Ibid., See also Yordanov, ‘Warsaw Pact Countries’ Involvement’.

¹⁵² Dragostinova, The Cold War from the Margins.

¹⁵³ Jordan Baev, ‘Bulgarian Military and Humanitarian Aid to Third World’, in Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World, ed. Muehlenbeck and Telepnova, 298–325.

¹⁵⁴ Note 7214 (4 April 1972), Fondo Países, Bulgaria 3, AHMRE; Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, session 1329, 4 April 1972.

¹⁵⁵ From Ambassador to Foreign Minister, Sofia (18 May 1972), Fondo Países, Byoulgaria 3, Confidential 106/7, AHMRE.

¹⁵⁶ From Bulgaria’s Ambassador in Havana to the Chilean Embassy (9 January 1973), Fondo Países, Bulgaria 4, Note 72658, AHMRE.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fondecyt [1181390].