Soviet archives reveal some of the Left's Latino heroes were KGB men

The revelation that some of the Left's greatest Latin American heroes were KGB men is going to force a re-writing of modern history in the hemisphere, and vindicates the United States and its allies for some of their most controversial Cold War policies in the region.

Former KGB archivist Vasilii Mitrokhin, co-author with Christopher Andrew of several important works based on KGB records, makes what many call stunning revelations in his brand-new book, The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World. For this blogger the real surprise is that the top-secret information left the KGB in the first place.

Here are some of the KGB men in the Latino pantheon:

Chilean President SALVADOR ALLENDE, a Marxist elected by plurality in 1970 and one of the Left's great martyrs, was "by far the most important of the KGB's confidential contacts in South America," according to Mitrokhin. Allende was a "confidential contact" - not a controlled agent but a volunteer collaborator - with the KGB since 1961. Allende's KGB file referred to him as a consistent supporter of Brezhnev's Soviet Union. General Augusto Pinochet led a coup against him, Allende committed suicide, problem solved.

Soviet documents show $420,000 in actual and proposed KGB payments to Allende prior to and during his presidency.

CARLOS FONSECA, founder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) of Nicaragua, a fully recruited "trusted KGB agent." Cryptonym: GIDROLOG.

A much lesser-known Sandinista, MANUEL ANDARA Y UBEDA, a KGB agent who in the late 1960s reconnoitered the US-Mexican border for Soviet sabotage teams.

Former Costa Rican President JOSE "PEPE" FIGUERES, an obstructionist against efforts to combat communism in the Western hemisphere, who took at least $310,000 from the KGB. The KGB reported to Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1974 that Figueres "agreed to publish materials advantageous to the KGB" in his newspaper, and received $10,000 for the service.

The book reports that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro told a Soviet general in 1981 that Moscow should re-deploy nuclear missiles on the island to counter President Ronald Reagan's pledged deployment of intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Europe to counter Soviet SS-20s.

Mitrokhin's newest book belongs in every Latin American studies curriculum in every university. It proves what the more clear-eyed Latin Americanists always suspected. Like so many other revelations from the Soviet crypts, it further validates President Reagan's global strategy and discredits the junk peddled in most university Latin American studies departments.

For more, see the Miami Herald.