Luis Corvalán

Luis Nicolás Corvalán Lepe (14 September 1916 – 21 July 2010) was a Chilean politician, teacher, and writer. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh) for more than three decades and was twice elected to the Senate of Chile.

Corvalán was detained by the Government Junta following the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat. The USSR worked relentlessly for Corvalán's freedom, preparing plans for a military strike against Chile to rescue him, and orchestrating an international pressure campaign aimed at securing his parole. In 1976, the released Corvalán in exchange for the freedom of the Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, with the prisoner swap occurring in Switzerland. He later underwent plastic surgery to disguise his features before secretly returning to Chile to help organize opposition to the presidency of Augusto Pinochet.

Corvalán was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union, and was invested into the Order of Klement Gottwald by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and the Order of Karl Marx by the German Democratic Republic (GDR). He was also featured on a GDR postage stamp and is remembered in the lyrics to "" by the folk band Oktoberklub. Corvalán's son, Luís Alberto, was severely wounded during torture by the military and later died, reportedly of complications from his injuries.

Early life and education

Luis Corvalán was born on 14 September 1916 near Puerto Montt, Chile, as one of six children. His father abandoned the family when Corvalán was five.

He was certified as a primary school teacher in 1934.

Career

Early political activism

Corvalán joined the Communist Party of Chile in the city of Chillán in 1932, at age 15, shortly after the end of the presidency of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo.According to Nuestra Propuesta Interview - Raúl Martínez / Corvalán. (Carlos Ibáñez del Campo would return to the presidency between 1952 and 1958 a period which meant severe repression against the PCCh) He wrote for the communist newspapers and '' El Siglo'' and, in 1950—during a period when the PCCh was outlawed—he was elected to the party's central committee.

Party leadership and elected office

In 1958, the Communist Party was legalized in Chile and Corvalán was selected as its general secretary. He has been credited with its growth during the period of reemergence; according to ''The Guardian'', "by the 70s it had achieved nearly 20% of the vote, and counted the poet Pablo Neruda, the writer Francisco Coloane and the songwriter Victor Jara among its members". The same year, Corvalán was elected to Concepción municipal council. He was subsequently elected to the Senate of Chile, where he represented Ñuble from 1961 to 1969. He was re-elected in 1969 to represent Aconcagua and Valparaíso.

In his political positions, Corvalán displayed steadfast support for Soviet policies. In 1967, he criticized Cuba's interventions into the political affairs of other Latin American nations, writing in ''Pravda'' that "the specific characteristics of one revolution, such as the Cuban revolution, can be repeated in another place but not in the same form". He later supported the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. On domestic questions, he was open to collaboration with non-communists, leading the party into a coalition with the Socialist Party as part of the '' Unidad Popular'' movement that resulted in the election of Salvador Allende as president of Chile in 1970.

Corvalán was a central figure in the government and ''The'' ''New York Times'' credited him with pushing Allende "left faster than was thought practical and probably faster than the President wanted". Still, Corvalán occasionally criticized the president's management, blaming his policies for the country's high inflation. In 1970, Corvalán visited Moscow to press for more Soviet aid to Chile.

Arrest and campaign for release

Two weeks after the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat, Corvalán was placed under arrest on a charge related to alleged subversion of the Chilean armed forces. He was initially held at the O'Higgins Military Academy in Santiago. In response to a letter of inquiry from the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, foreign minister Ismael Huerta wrote that:

During an October 1973 session of the United Nations General Assembly, a shouting match erupted among delegates after Soviet ambassador Yakov Malik issued a demand that the UN intercede to prevent Corvalán's execution, which was rumored to be forthcoming. Chilean ambassador Raul Bazan denied that any such execution was planned, prompting a heated exchanged between Bazan and Malik that Saudi Arabian ambassador Jamil Baroody tried to break up. This prompted Bazan to call Baroody a "fool", which, in turn, provoked Baroody into an argument with the Chilean. F. Bradford Morse, representing the United States, attempted to calm the conflagration before Leopoldo Benites, presiding, was able to restore order.

Corvalán was subsequently transferred from the military academy to the prison colony on Dawson Island. In 1975, the KGB conducted satellite reconnaissance of Dawson Island and drew up plans to launch an assault against it to rescue Corvalán using ''spetsnaz'' delivered by disguised merchantman and supported by two Red Fleet submarines. In a 1998 lecture, Nikolai Leonov described the importance to The Center in "how to pay this respect to our class colleagues, our ideological brothers, if you will" and went on to provide some operational details of the proposed strike:

According to Leonov, when KGB staff presented the plan to Kremlin leadership "they looked at us as if we were half crazy". The Soviet attack on Dawson Island never occurred and, later that year, Corvalán was moved to a mainland prison due to a bleeding stomach ulcer. In August, he underwent surgery for appendicitis.

During the years of Corvalán's detention, an international campaign organized by the Soviet Union agitated for his release. The Society of Czechoslovak Lawyers issued a demand that they be allowed to provide pro bono legal counsel to Corvalán; the United Nations Commission on Human Rights made a formal request for his release from imprisonment; and demonstrations in support of Corvalán were held around the world in places such as West Germany, Italy, and the United States. Chilean artists living in the Netherlands formed the "Brigada Luis Corvalán", a collective that installed public art pieces protesting the Pinochet government. In East Germany, a series of two commemorative postage stamps memorializing Corvalán and the deceased president Salvador Allende, titled "Solidarity with the People of Chile", were released.

In 1975, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), acting on testimony given to an ad hoc investigative committee regarding the detention of Corvalán, enacted a resolution calling the matter "a grave international concern" and requested the Chilean government "to release all political prisoners forthwith". Testimony was provided to the IPU's committee by a variety of organizations and individuals, including the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Amnesty International, the International Union of Students, the Women's International Democratic Federation, Luis Guastavino, and others.

Release

In November 1976, the Government Junta announced the release of a substantial number of political prisoners. Corvalán and 19 others were not included in the parole, and the Junta indicated it would only free the prisoners if they consented to exile. The following month, Chile agreed to release Corvalán provided that the Soviet government similarly released the dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. The idea for a prisoner swap was first proposed by Andrei Sakharov and was brokered by the United States, as Chile and the Soviet Union had previously ended diplomatic relations. The transfer of prisoners occurred in Zürich, Switzerland.

Following the exchange, Corvalán was flown to Moscow where he received a rapturous welcome and was feted as the guest of honor at the 70th birthday of Leonid Brezhnev. Corvalán's victory tour continued in January with a welcome ceremony in the Palace of the Republic in Berlin on the occasion of his visit to the German Democratic Republic. During the ceremony, Dean Reed performed a Spanish-language rendition of the African-American spiritual hymn "I Shall Not Be Moved".

The Argentine newspaper ''La Opinión'', commenting on the exchange, opined that it demonstrated "Santiago and Moscow have very similar concepts about the value of freedom and of people; both invoke elevated principles but reduce man to an object of barter."

Years abroad

During his years abroad, Corvalán maintained his position as general secretary of the PCCh—which was now operating underground—leading it from the USSR. In 1979, he declared the necessity of armed resistance to Pinochet, resulting in an abandonment of the party's previous position of peaceful resistance. For the first time, the PCCh began cooperating with the Revolutionary Left Movement, working together to carry out several attacks on state institutions. During this period, the PCCh began backing the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), which came into being in 1983 and embarked on a series of armed actions, including the attempted assassination of Augusto Pinochet; attacks on the offices of the Associated Press; bombings of temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and restaurants frequented by American tourists; and the kidnapping of Germán Obando, a corporal in the ''Carabineros de Chile''.

In advance of the 1988 Chilean presidential referendum, Corvalán led a faction of the Communist Party that sought to boycott the election, preferring instead to continue the guerilla insurgency.

Later years

In the 1980s, Corvalán underwent plastic surgery in the Soviet Union to alter his appearance. The procedures were reportedly performed by the alleged KGB-affiliated surgeon Aleksandr Shmelev. Disguised with new facial features, he secretly returned to Chile to help organize opposition to the Pinochet government in 1988.

Corvalán stepped down as general secretary of the Communist Party of Chile in 1989, ending more than three decades of his leadership.Murió el ex secretario general del PC Luis Corvalán
''El Mercurio'' 21 de julio de 2010

Personal life

Corvalán was married and had several daughters and a son, Luis Alberto. Luis Alberto was detained at the following the coup of 1973. He was released in 1975 and left the country for Bulgaria, where he died of a heart attack, reportedly due to cardiac damage resulting from the methods used in his interrogation during his imprisonment.

Corvalán died at the age of 93 on 21 July 2010, in Santiago.

Honors and legacy

Corvalán was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize in 1974 ''in absentia''. He was also invested into the Order of Klement Gottwald and the Order of Karl Marx, both in 1977.

In 2023, Russian Federation foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, in an article for the ''Rossiyskaya Gazeta'' observing the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup, recalled that Russia, as successor state to the Soviet Union, was responsible for demanding "the release of Chile's heroic son Luís Corvalán from his imprisonment in a concentration camp, and succeeded in attaining this aim".

Cultural impact in East Germany

During the 1970s, Chilean politics and resistance to Pinochet became a popular theme among East German youth, even those who had limited contact with the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Chileans like Corvalán presented an appealing vision of radical activism that was more vibrant than that offered by the ossified government of the GDR.

Leonardo Rodríguez, a Chilean musician residing in East Germany during the 1970s, recalled the consistent appeal of the idea of the liberation of Chile to Germans:

Corvalán's 1977 tour of East Germany was documented in the DEFA film (''We Will Overcome Through Solidarity''), directed by Joachim Hadaschik. The film documented Corvalán's travels in East Germany where he met leaders of the Socialist Unity Party, gave public speeches, and attended rallies where Germans and foreign expatriates celebrated his freedom.

The German folk band Oktoberklub refers to Corvalán in the lyrics of its 1977 song "": "On Red Square, Corvalen stands; He toasts with us, to our cause; let's drink to Luis Corvalán!"

See also

* Álvaro Cunhal
* Group of Personal Friends

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* – foreword by Corvalán

Further reading

*
*

External links

Corvalán recalls his schooling in 1930s Chile; part of an oral history project of the National Library of Chile

Film of Luis Corvalán speaking in 1977 about the Panama Canal

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corvalan, Luis
1916 births
2010 deaths
People from Puerto Montt
Chilean people of Spanish descent
Communist Party of Chile politicians
Senators of the XLIV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile
Senators of the XLV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile
Senators of the XLVI Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile
Senators of the XLVII Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile
Presidency of Salvador Allende
Chilean expatriates in the Soviet Union
People granted political asylum in the Soviet Union
Recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize
Recipients of the Order of Lenin