ABSTRACT
Historically, the Labour Party had been indifferent towards Latin America,
the Cuban Revolution aside. Even here, under Gaitskell, the party leadership
as at least as concerned about the impact on the US and the Cold War
context as with the Cuban Revolution itself. In 1962 Gaitskell would argue
that the US had just as much right to stop the Soviet Union establishing a
base in Cuba as Britain would if it attempted to establish one in Ireland.1
Latin America was not an area where Britain had to manage a messy post-
imperial retreat, as it did in South-East Asia. Geographically remote, it was not an area whose politics attracted much interest in Labour Party circles. All
of this changed, however, with the 1970 election of the socialist Salvador
Allende as President of Chile at the head of the left-wing Unidad Popular
coalition.
