Luís Corvalán

Born Sept. 14, 1916, in Puerto Montt, Llanquihue Province. Leader of the Chilean labor movement; teacher by professsion.

Corvalán joined the Communist Party of Chile (CPC) in 1932. He was organizational secretary of the Concepción party organization from 1936 to 1940 and worked on the newspaper Frente popular. Corvalán was elected to the Concepción city council at this time. He became the assistant manager of the newspaper El Sigh, the central organ of the CPC, in 1940 and its manager in 1946. He was the leader of the propaganda section of the Central Committee of the CPC from 1948 to 1956. He was elected to the Central Committee in 1952 and to the political commission of the Central Committee in 1956. He was secretary of propaganda of the Central Committee from 1956 to 1958 and became general secretary of the CPC in March 1958. Corvalán was elected a senator in the Chilean National Congress in 1961. He was arrested several times for his revolutionary activity. Since the fascist military coup of September 1973 he has been imprisoned. In 1975 he was awarded the Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Nations. [13–416-4; updated by Soviet editors]