Chile’s new president, Gabriel Boric, has stressed the importance of his Yugoslav roots. But well before Boric's rise to prominence, across much of the last century, Yugoslav socialism was a major influence on the Chilean left.
by Agustín Cosovschi
Part 3 - The Non-Aligned Movement and Global Socialism
In 1948, after a series of clashes with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia was expelled from the community of socialist states. Threatened with isolation in an increasingly polarized world, Belgrade set out to expand its network of allies beyond European shores. The recently decolonized nations of Asia and Africa, as well as the economically dependent nations of Latin America, became a priority in Yugoslav foreign policy.
With time, and in tandem with other rising African and Asian powers, such as Nasser’s Egypt and Nehru’s India, Yugoslav endeavors in what would later be known as the “Third World” would lead to the creation of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, an alternative project for dependent countries seeking to increase their margin of maneuver in the polarized context of the Cold War.
The main center of Belgrade’s action in Latin America was Chile. The reason for this was not so much the presence of a large Yugoslav diaspora but rather the fact that Chile was home to the Popular Socialist Party (PSP), a radicalized and resolute Marxist party that was also inspired by ideas of Third Worldism, popular nationalism, and radical anti-imperialism.
In 1952, the Chilean socialists took the initiative to make contact with the Yugoslav delegation in Santiago to express their interest in the Yugoslav socialist model. At a time when Belgrade sorely needed allies, the PSP’s initiative was almost heaven-sent. From then on, Yugoslavs and Chileans developed a close political friendship that would have a deep impact on the history of the Chilean left.
In following years, the Chilean socialists published Yugoslav works in Spanish for Latin American readers, Yugoslav representatives came to Latin America for regular visits, and Chilean socialist leaders such as Raúl Ampuero and Salomón Corbalán also crossed the ocean to see the achievements of Yugoslav socialism for themselves. These visits had a powerful impact on Chilean socialist ideas, the most remarkable surely being the one by intellectual Oscar Waiss and senator Aniceto Rodríguez in 1955 — an experience that Waiss recounts in his travel journal Amanecer en Belgrado (Dawn in Belgrade). This made Yugoslav self-management and its role in the Non-Aligned Movement models for much of the Chilean left.
Chile thus became the main foothold of Yugoslav activity in Latin America. The Chilean Socialist Party frequently participating in Non-Aligned conferences, Chilean students benefited from scholarships to come to Yugoslavia, and Yugoslav-background Chilean politicians like Christian Democrat Radomiro Tomic Romero also made friendly visits to the country.
When, in 1963, Tito decided to make a tour in Latin America to promote nonalignment and nuclear disarmament, Chile was one of his most important destinations. The visit gave him the chance to have official talks with conservative president Jorge Alessandri, but also to have extensive meetings with the Socialist Party and the local Yugoslav community.
With the radicalization of the Cold War in Latin America — especially after the wave of US-sponsored military dictatorships that swept the continent in the 1960s and 1970s — Yugoslav influence began to wane. Yet the solidarity between Chilean and Yugoslav socialists remained strong even in these turbulent times. The Yugoslavs visited Chile several times during Salvador Allende’s socialist administration, expressing their support for one of the most progressive governments on the continent, and, incidentally, it was Chilean-Yugoslav economist Pedro Vuskovic who assumed the position of minister of economic affairs in Allende’s administration.
Perhaps most importantly, Belgrade did not hesitate to give refuge to dozens of socialist militants who escaped the Pinochet regime’s repression after the bloody coup d’état of September 11, 1973. Socialist Yugoslavia was thus honoring its loyalty to one of the most resolute, courageous, and democratic socialist projects ever to materialize in Latin America — and one that Belgrade itself had helped fashion.
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