Communism in Latin America

Report Outline
Communist Issue at Inter-American Conference
Extent of Communist Penetration in Hemisphere
Inter–American Action on Threats to Security
Special Focus

Communist Issue at Inter-American Conference

The threat of Communist penetration in the Western Hemisphere has become a matter of serious concern to the United States and many of its sister republics in Latin America. The nature of the threat—and of effective measures to combat it—is posing major problems for the Tenth Inter-American Conference now getting under way at Caracas in Venezuela.

Serious charges have been leveled against one American state—Guatemala—whose government is accused of harboring a Communist conspiracy and permitting use of its territory as a base for Soviet operations. Official denials by the Guatemalan government have included counter charges of “intervention” by the United States and European powers with possessions in the hemisphere.

United States Concern Over Red Penetration

In the United States, sharp warnings have come from congressional leaders who see the spread of international Communism as the gravest danger confronting the New World. Chairman Wiley (R., Wis.) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a speech on events in Guatemala, Jan. 14, said “the source of our concern is that Guatemala has become a beachhead for international Communism in this hemipshere.” Wiley listed “22 facts … to prove the interlocking relationship between Guatemalan Communism and Moscow Communism” and said developments in Guatemala would be watched closely “not only by myself, but by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and elsewhere in the Congress.”