FBI tracked Mexican author

MEXICO CITY (AP):The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the United States (US) and the State Department closely monitored Mexican author Carlos Fuentes for more than two decades because he was considered a communist and a sympathiser of Cuba's Fidel Castro, recently released documents show.

The documents posted on the FBI's website last week show the United States denied Fuentes an entry visa at least twice in the 1960s.

In one of the memorandums Fuentes is described as "a leading Mexican communist writer" and a "well-known Mexican novelist with long history of subversive connections."

Fuentes died in 2012 at age 83 after suffering an internal haemorrhage.

In the 170-page dossier of internal official documents and some newspaper articles, the FBI describes how it monitored Fuentes and denied him permission to enter the US for having been a member of the Mexican Communist Party.

One of the 20th century's most influential Latin American authors and intellectuals, Fuentes backed Castro after he took over Cuba and also supported the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua.

But Fuentes' good relations with the Cuban government ended in 1971 when he joined protests over its treatment of poet Heberto Padilla, something that Cuban officials never forgave him for.

The FBI's file for Fuentes includes newspaper articles about how his visa application was later denied.

Although Fuentes was denied an entry visa at least a couple of times, the Mexican writer did make several visits to the US and was granted permission to teach at American universities. But authorities continued to track him in US territory.