November 26, 2012
Tiwy.com
CIA agents attack «Soviet facilities». From the history of the Cold War
Nil Nikandrov - http://www.strategic-culture.org
CIA agents attack «Soviet facilities». From the history of the Cold War
The victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad became a signal for the countries of Latin America. The leading states in the region started to install, and in some cases to restore diplomatic relations with Russia. The initiative came from the Latin Americans. Despite the difficulties of war years, from 1943-1946 USSR embassies were established in Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. President Roosevelt stood by the emergence of Soviet missions on the continent. In May 1943, Josef Stalin dissolved the Comintern, demonstrating to the allies that in the new historical conditions, the organization would not be used as a channel for "exporting revolution."

However, even before Churchill's Fulton speech, delivered on March 5th, 1946, the foreign policy of the United States was inevitable and threatening to slide into a Cold War with Russia. Gradually the formulas used in the U.S. to expose the propaganda of totalitarianism Nazi Germany, began to be moved against the Soviet Union. It was accused of the division of Europe, in the construction of the "Iron Curtain" and in harboring secret plans of expansion. A strategy against the Soviet Union was firmly formulated by Washington and London: “the Russians only respect strength," so finding an understanding with Russia could only be " based on the military force of the English speaking community." That is, the requirement of the arms race and the unilateral possession of nuclear weapons as the main argument in "curbing" Moscow. "Leaked information” confirmed the existence of plans for the atomic bombing of targets in Russia. Dozens of cities were to be destroyed following the example of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Moscow understood that the confrontational policies of President Harry Truman were seeking to limit the Soviet presence in various parts of the world, and above all in the Western Hemisphere. In an effort to get rid of "Soviet observers" in Latin America, the United States launched a powerful propaganda campaign "to expose the subversive activities of the Soviets" on the continent, and this surpassed all that was done in the field of propaganda during the struggle with Nazi Germany. Countries south of the Rio Grande - the "United States backyard " - had to be completely cleared of Soviet embassies, trade missions and cultural centers! For dealing with this task they sent American diplomats and the FBI, who were engaged in intelligence work in Latin America during the war, and in 1947 they created the CIA.

The Soviet Embassy in Santiago de Chile was fired on in the early morning of October 10, 1947. The fire came from a car and targeted the windows of the second floor. Eleven bullets from a "Thompson” machine gun were found in the walls. The emblem of the Soviet Union over the main entrance received several bullet holes. The right wing pro-American press gloated: "It's a reaction to the attempts to turn Chile into a subversive Soviet outpost on the continent." A week later, at the opening of the traditional agricultural exhibition, a group of landowners organized a demonstration under the slogans "No to Communism", "Down with Ambassador Zhukov", "Down with Russia." The Soviets were forced to leave the show, escorted by the Director of Protocol of Foreign Affairs of Chile and police. A telegram was sent to Moscow on the situation surrounding the embassy which said: "It is increasingly rumored that it is the intention of the government of Gabriel Videla to break diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in the near future." Soon Ambassador Zhukov was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, and he was presented with a corresponding note. The diplomats were given three days to pack up and leave. The Soviet embassy in the country had lasted 1 year 5 months and 25 days.

A day later, on October 11, the apartment of Third Secretary of the Embassy of the USSR in Mexico, Ivan Kumaryan was fired at. He was on a business trip, but his wife and two children witnessed the attempted assassination. They went down to the ground floor to the dining room just in time, and the fire was aimed at the bedroom window. The diplomat`s wife had time to see two men with guns in their hands run along the fence. On December 17th, the attack was repeated. Kumaryan and his wife were at a diplomatic reception at the time, but the children were at home. They had to move quickly to the embassy. Ambassador Alexander Kapustin received instructions from Moscow to make a "verbal request" to the Mexican Foreign Ministry and demand an investigation into the incidents. The ambassador was advised to negotiate with the Mexicans so that the information about the shootings would not be leaked to the press: Moscow did not want any extra promotional hype, knowing full well who did want it. A representative of the secret police, which was investigating the "situation", shared his thoughts with Kumaryan: "this case is viewed as being politically motivated. If they wanted to kill you, they would have ambushed you when you got home from the office, and would shoot straight at you, not at the window. These people wanted to create a scandal, and they were, I suspect, not Mexicans. “On the question of who he did suspect, the investigator said in English: “I don't know”.

The Soviet mission in Havana was fired at on April 20, 1948. At least a dozen shots were made on the building from a passing car. Two bullets hit the Ambassador`s apartment, and one hit the wall of the reception hall. No one was injured: all the employees were at a political information meeting. The Chief of Police appeared at the mission half an hour after the shooting. He said he would investigate, but did not promise quick results. According to information received from friends of the mission in the police, the attack was organized by the "Union of veterans of the second world war", which was "in the pocket of" the U.S. Embassy. New provocations against the mission were noted on 16 and 21 August. The method was the same: shots from a car, aimed primarily at the windows. As it turned out, the August attacks were organized by the Anti-Communist League, created by former Deputy Police Chief of Cuba, Diaz- Verson. A few days before the attacks, he met with a representative of U.S. intelligence on McNamara Island. The last provocation against the mission was carried out on April 10, 1951. A bomb which was thrown from the street onto the balcony of the main building did not work because of the poor quality of the safety fuse. The police defused the "infernal device." This attack was suspected to be by the militant supporters of white emigrant Andrei Golovchenko, who in 1947 was declared the head of the "Russian government in exile." He announced his initiative at the "Society of Friends of the United States."

The dictator F. Batista, who seized power in a coup on the night of 9 to 10 March 1952, immediately announced that he would make every effort to "suppress communist infiltration" in Cuba. On March 21 police agents staged a provocation at the airport, trying to hold two Soviet diplomatic couriers and, contrary to international law, inspect their luggage. The Soviet couriers resisted and returned to Mexico. Diplomatic mail did not arrive at the mission, and its activities were practically blocked. The Batista government did not give any explanations for the abuse of the Soviet couriers. On April 2 a representative of the Soviet mission in Havana, presented the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, with a note about the severance of diplomatic relations. In an interview with American journalists Batista said: "I broke up with Russia, just as you - the U.S. -wanted."

Provocations organized by the CIA through agents in the police force, led, ultimately, to the Soviet Union severing relations with Brazil (1947), Colombia (1948) and Venezuela (1952). Only Mexico, Uruguay, and Argentina were able to withstand the pressure from Washington. The first two had already severed relations with Soviet Russia, in 1930 and 1934 respectively. To resort to such drastic measures in again terminating the relationship would be inappropriate. In Argentina, the U.S. ambassador repeatedly tried to persuade Juan Peron to "get rid of the Soviet mission." The President ended their attempts simply: he publicly proposed that the Americans set an example and close the Soviet Embassy in Washington first. Peron`s words were often quoted: "We are not going to pull anyone else’s chestnuts out of the fire."

Alexander Sizonenko, a known expert on Russian-Latin American relations rightly pointed out that "during the Cold War the Western powers attempted to isolate and weaken the USSR, and the Soviet leadership tried to seek opportunities to improve their situation, and to improve their relations with certain countries." The meeting between the Ambassador of Argentina L. Bravo and Stalin on February 7, 1953 was largely symbolic. A. Sizonenko correctly interpreted the position of the Soviet leader: "Stalin was not just looking for opportunities to expand and strengthen relations with Argentina, whose president, J. Peron often criticized U.S. policy at this time, but also tried via this country to break the “cold war "chains, at least in Latin America. " (1)

I would add from myself, that the FBI and CIA are conducting special operations on the continent. We should not assume that the United States under the new historical conditions, and after winning the Cold War, looks favorably on the increased activity in Latin America of Russian diplomacy and Russian businessmen. U.S. intelligence agencies keep all aspects of this activity under constant surveillance. And if necessary, they use their wealth of experience in alleged provocations, sabotage and propaganda manipulation to discredit the recent “Russian return to Latin America"...

(1) https://sites.google.com/site/latinoamerikanistika/arhiv-nomerov/2007-2/a-i-sizonenko-otnosenia-sssr-so-stranami-latinskoj-ameriki-v-1941---1945-godah