Luis Corvalán

Communist Party of Chile Marxism–Leninism 1916.9.14.–2010.7.21. ○ Natural causes

General secretary who led the Communist Party of Chile for three decades and held Popular Unity to a cautious line

In December 1976 at Zürich the Chilean junta handed him over and the Soviet Union handed over Bukovsky; the United States brokered the exchange between the two estranged governments.

Born near Puerto Montt and trained as a primary school teacher, Corvalán joined the Communist Party of Chile in 1932 at fifteen. He entered its central committee in 1950, while the party was outlawed, became general secretary when it was legalised in 1958 and led it until 1989, and was twice elected senator. A loyal follower of the Soviet line, inside Popular Unity he stood for a cautious course of compromise with the Christian Democrats and reform through Congress. Arrested after the coup and held on Dawson Island among other places, he was exchanged in December 1976 for the Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky and freed in Zürich. He led the party from Moscow, then had plastic surgery and slipped back into Chile to organise resistance to the dictatorship.

Also known as: Luis Nicolás Corvalán Lepe