The New Latin American Left in a polarised Cold War: The story of Vivian Trías Aldo Marchesi a and Michal Zourek b a Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, University of the Republic, Montevideo, Uruguay; b Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University, Brno, Czech Republic ABSTRACT Vivian Trías, a prominent Latin American intellectual and leader of the Uruguayan Socialist Party, was an agent of the Czechoslovak State Security Service (StB), the intelligence agency in communist Czechoslovakia. Through a critical analysis of the Czech archives, this article seeks to explain why Trías, who defned himself as a Latin Americanist and tercerista in the Cold War, developed this link with one of the Soviet Bloc countries. The article suggests that solidarity with Cuba and anti-imperialism were the central points through which this collaboration was consolidated. KEYWORDS New Left; Czechoslovak intelligence; Soviet infuence in Latin America; Latin American Cold War; Cold War intellectuals; Cold War espionage Introduction: thinking about the Southern Cone New Left through the lens of the Czechoslovak intelligence archive In 2017 the Uruguayan Left received shocking news: Vivian Trías, former General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Uruguay (SPU) and a prominent leftist intellec- tual, had been an agent of the State Security Service (Státní bezpečnost, or StB), the intelligence agency of communist Czechoslovakia. The news came through a blog linked to Brazilian anticommunist activists who had obtained access to the StB archives. The revelation triggered a wave of accusations and concerns in Uruguay’s political scene. 1 Beyond its initial impact, the discussion that ensued brought up a number of questions about the Cold War that have scarcely been discussed in the historiography on Latin America, which for obvious historical reasons has tended to focus on US infuence in the region. 2 Although there have been some works published in the last decade on the infuence exerted by Communist Bloc countries on Latin America, these have focused mostly on the CONTACT Michal Zourek zourek@centrum.cz Ústav teritoriálních studií, FRRMS, Mendelova Univerzita, tř. Gen. Píky 2005/7, 613 00 Brno 1 For the frst mentions in the press, see: Vladimír Petrilák, ‘Vivian Trías: el mayor agente de la StB en América Latina’, StB no Brazil, https://stbnoBrazil.com/es/vivian-trias-el-mayor-agente-de-la-stb-en-america-latina (accessed 10 January 2019); Fernando López D’Alesandro’, Peritaje, mentiras y documentos: Vivian Trías, la historia y el marxismo leninismo’, Agencia Uruguaya de Noticias, 15 March 2018, http://www.uypress.net/auc (accessed 20 May 2018), Aldo Marchesi and Michal Zourek, ‘Vivian Trías y Checoslovaquia: ¿qué sabemos hasta ahora?’, La Diaria, 17 March 2018. See also two recent books that examine this archive: Vladimir Petrilák and Mauro Abranches Kraenski, La STB: el brazo de la KGB en Uruguay: Los archivos secretos del espionaje comunista desde los años 60 (Montevideo: Planeta, 2018); and Fernando López D’Alesandro, El hombre que fue Ríos: la inteligencia checoslovaca y la izquierda nacional (1956–1977) (Montevideo: Debate, 2019). 2 See Hal Brands, Latin America’s Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012); and Greg Grandin, The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2011). COLD WAR HISTORY https://doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2021.1923697 © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group