Objects of Barter

Since the right-wing military junta of General Augusto Pinochet seized power in Chile three years ago, nothing but insults have been exchanged by Santiago and Moscow. So when Strongman Pinochet ostentatiously offered to give the Kremlin his country's top Communist prisoner in exchange for a jailed Russian writer last month, his proposal was widely dismissed as a futile gesture designed to mute critics of his oppressive regime. Last week the improbable bargain was consummated. In exchange for the release of Chilean Communist Party Chief Luis Corvalan, 60, the Kremlin freed Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, 33, who was serving a seven-year sentence for "anti-Soviet agitation."

No one seemed more surprised by the unprecedented swap of political prisoners than Corvalan and Bukovsky. Until Thursday of last week. Bukovsky had been immured in the infamous Vladimir Prison in central Russia. Moved on Friday to a Moscow jail, the Russian began to suspect that something was afoot. But not until he was placed aboard a specially chartered Aeroflot jet bound for Zurich did he know that he had been freed. Bukovsky's mother Nina, his sister Olga and his nephew Mikhail were also flown to Switzerland to join him in exile. Simultaneously, Corvalan was snatched from prison near Santiago and put aboard a flight to Zurich with his wife Lilly. The solemn exchange took place on a remote runway nearly a mile from Zurich's Kloten Airport. Corvalan was then flown to Moscow for a hero's welcome and star billing at Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev's 70th birthday party on Sunday.

Bukovsky, who has been the object of a worldwide campaign for his release, looked wan and ill after eleven years spent in Soviet jails, concentration camps and police-run lunatic asylums. "I am happy but not feeling well," he told reporters, holding up his wrists to show the marks left by handcuffs.

Unfolding Mystery. Negotiations for the swap had been carried out under tight security wraps. As the mystery unfolded last week, the U.S. Government acknowledged its crucial role as intermediary between Chile and the U.S.S.R., which have no diplomatic relations. Last month the Chilean junta, anxious to polish up its image in Washington, released about 300 political prisoners, while holding on to Corvalan for an exchange that would have dramatic public relations value. Washington suggested that Bukovsky would be a candidate for a swap. Acting as go-betweens in discussions between Chilean and Soviet diplomats in Washington were the State Department's Harry Shlaudeman and the National Security Council's William G. Hyland.

"The Soviets were intrigued from the start by the idea of the exchange," noted one top U.S. official. Indeed, the Kremlin had long and loudly campaigned for the release of Corvalan, who headed Latin America's largest Communist Party and holds the Order of Lenin, the Soviets' top peacetime decoration. "Corvalan is a splendid prize for the Kremlin," observed British Sovietologist Leopold Labedz. "He can now be set up as the highly visible and potent center for Communist opposition to the Chilean junta." Bukovsky, on the other hand, had proved to be a considerable embarrassment to the Kremlin as the symbol of harsh Soviet repression of dissidents.

Both Santiago and Moscow quickly tried to make capital out of the exchange. At a Washington press conference, Chilean Ambassador Manuel Trucco declared that 383 Chilean political prisoners had also been freed recently, neglecting to mention that 650 others are still behind bars. In Moscow the official press agency, Tass, jubilantly reported that the Soviet government had provided Corvalan with the "opportunity of coming to the U.S.S.R.," without mentioning Bukovsky. At week's end one respected Latin American newspaper. Buenos Aires' La Opinion, commented: "The exchange demonstrates that Santiago and Moscow have very similar concepts about the value of freedom and of people; both invoke elevated principles but reduce man to an object of barter."

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