Ricardo Setaro

Ricardo Manlio Leonidas Setaro (1903–1975) was an Argentinian who served as deputy chief of the Latin American department of CBS Radio during World War II and maintained a covert relationship with Soviet intelligence, including Iosif Grigulevich.

A 1944 New York KGB message to Moscow stated, Setaro is working as deputy chief of the Latin American department of the Columbia Broadcasting System.

After leaving CBS Setaro was employed for a short period with Nicola Napoli by Artkino Pictures, Inc., the sole distributing agent in the Western Hemisphere for Soviet films.

Setaro's cover names assigned by Soviet intelligence and deciphered by NSA cryptographers are GONETS (translated means EXPRESS MESSENGER or COURIER), JEAN, and ZHAN.

During the Second World War he informed the regional Spanish speaking audience about its events from the "Cadena de las Americas", short wave radio of the Columbia Broadcasting System, in New York, USA.

In literary fiction, a type which he developed successfully, he wrote "El alma que se apresuró", of which the Newspaper La Nacion of Buenos Aires said in 1928 that it showed a flexible talent, somehow mocking and deep, but not ordinary.

In cinema, he produced the movies "Hombres a precio", about journalism in Argentina, Patrulla Norte, filmed in the Argentine province of Formosa about the activities of the border patrol (Gendarmería Nacional), "Mis cinco hijos" about the life of the five Alonso brothers and Violencia en la ciudad about crime in city, that was never released.