The CIA monitored Jeremy Corbyn over his links with a Marxist trade union, it emerged today.
American spies followed the Labour leader as he attended a conference in El Salvador hosted by the far-left Fenastras union in 1986.
The group was linked to a violent guerrilla militia which was backed by the Soviet Union and killed hundreds of civilians in the country’s civil war.
Spies filed a report on Mr Corbyn’s support of Fenastras back to authorities in Washington.
On the watch list: Jeremy Corbyn, pictured left in 1989 and right, earlier this week, was being watched by the CIA
The note on Mr Corbyn came to light in the declassified CIA archive and was first reported by the Guido Fawkes website.
It dates to 1986 – the same year the Labour MP first met a Communist spy in Parliament.
Mr Corbyn, then a backbencher known for his extreme left-wing views, travelled to El Salvador in November that year.
He was described as a ‘fraternal delegate’ to the Fenestras conference and his trip was partly funded by the El Salvador Solidarity Committee.
He also allowed his name to be used in a newspaper advert in support of Fenestras, according to the diplomatic cable.
Declassified CIA files reveal American spies kept tabs on Jeremy Corbyn’s links to a Soviet-backed trade union that supported violent Marxist guerrillas
The conference was monitored to the CIA because the union had ‘guerrilla and WFTU connections’.
Declassified files reveal the CIA kept tabs on Jeremy Corbyn and his links to a Soviet-backed traded union group that supported Marxist guerrillas.
American spies watched the Labour leader as he embarked on a tour of El Salvador in 1986, it has emerged.
Political website Guido Fawkes claims Mr Corbyn visited Latin American regimes in the late 1980s.
Security services in the US were interested in the British politician’s ‘support’ for the El Salvadorian trade union Fenastras.
Security services in the US were interested in the British politician’s ‘support’ for the El Salvadorian trade union Fenastras
It was one of interest to authorities for its connections to guerrilla fighters and the World Federation of Trade Unions.
The US government considered Fenastras a front for political party and armed guerrilla rebel organisation the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
The FMLN, armed and supplied by the Soviet Union and Cuba, fought a bloody civil war between 1979 and 1992 against the authoritarian right-wing regime.
Between November 8 and 17 in 1986, Mr Corbyn travelled to the Fenastras Conference with a trip funded by the El Salvador Solidarity Committee, Guido Fawkes reports.
The political website points out in an investigation, published today, that Mr Corbyn went on four trips during 1986.
As well as two tours of El Salvador in January and November, Mr Corbyn also visited Cuba and Nicaragua.
In his register, he noted at the time he accepted ‘travel assistance from the Cuban government’.
The CIA documents also show Mr Corbyn’s name appears on a global media monitoring list dated March 1984.