Communist Party of Venezuela
Encyclopedia
The Communist Party of Venezuela (in Spanish: Partido Comunista de Venezuela, PCV) is a Marxist-Leninist political party, and the oldest continuously existing party in Venezuela
. It remained the main leftist political party in Venezuela from its foundation in 1931 until it split into rival factions in 1971.
. It was initially led by Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Francisco José "Kotepa" Delgado. The PCV became the Venezuelan affiliate of the Communist International
. A forerunner of the PCV, the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party
, had been founded in exile in Mexico in 1926 and attempted a rebellion in Venezuela in 1929.
The PCV remained an illegal organization until 1941, when it entered into an alliance with the progressive military regime of Isaías Medina Angarita
, following orders from Comintern for communist parties throughout the world to support governments that aided the allied war effort. The PCV was outlawed during the conservative military dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez
(1948–1958), when it played a key role in organizing the clandestine resistance to the regime, alongside activist from the (also banned) Acción Democrática party.
In 1952, despite remaining an illegal organization, PCV provided key support to the non-communist leftist party URD in elections organized by the military regime to legitimize its rule. When URD's election victory became apparent, the military ordered the ballot counting process stopped and refused to accept its defeat at the hands of the communist-supported opposition. The episode shifted the balance of power in the military from relative moderates to the hard-line faction led by Marcos Pérez Jiménez
, which substantially stepped up efforts to repress the clandestine opposition.
In 1958, the three main non-communist opposition parties (Accion Democratica, COPEI
and URD) made a conscious choice to exclude PCV from the power-sharing agreement, (the Punto Fijo Pact
) that would underpin the transition to democracy.
Appearing on a Venezuelan election ballot for the first time in the 1958 election
, PCV backed the candidacy of URD's Wolfgang Larrazábal
and received 3.2% of the vote (84,451 votes), contributing towards Larrazábal's total of 34.88%. The figure understates the party's influence in Venezuelan politics at the time, which stemmed less from its mass support than from its highly disciplined internal organization, including many full time party organizers, and its ideological and financial ties to the Soviet Union
.
In the early 1960s, inspired by the Cuban Revolution, the party became much more radical and launched a guerrilla war against the newly elected AD government led by Rómulo Betancourt
, causing it to be outlawed once more. The PCV guerrilla effort was unable to mobilize substantial support from the Venezuelan peasantry, which largely supported Betancourt's reformism, and was unable to mount a serious military challenge to the new regime. Disillusioned with the guerrilla experience, the majority of PCV members split away from the party in 1971 to enter electoral politics as part of the reformist Movement toward Socialism
(MAS). At the same time, a much smaller group of activists split off to form the trade-union based party La Causa Radical
, better known as Causa R, a forerunner of today's Patria Para Todos party. Remaining Communist fighters were later given a general amnesty by President Rafael Caldera
as part of his "pacificacion" process. (Controversial matter. See: Discussion)
In the following years, the PCV became a marginal force in Venezuelan politics. The party received 0.7% of the national vote in the 1973 elections, 0.5% in the 1978 election, 1% in 1983, and 0.3% in both the 1988 and 1993 elections: with its high water mark coming in 1983, with 67,681 votes.
In the 1993 presidential elections
, the PCV endorsed Rafael Caldera
, a member of the Convergencia
alliance. PCV broke with President Caldera in 1996.
adding 81,979 votes (1.25% of the national vote) to Chávez's total of 3,673,685 votes. In the 2006 presidential election, the PCV ticket received 2.9% of the National vote, contributing a haul of 342,227 to Chávez's total of 7,309,080 votes. These results make PCV the 4th largest party in the Chávez coalition.
The PCV has articulated its belief that the transition to socialism in Venezuela will be slow and evolutionary. The party remains a small but vocal part of the Chávez governing coalition.
After 2007, relations with the Chávez government have become increasingly strained due to PCV's refusal to merge with President Chávez's new United Socialist Party of Venezuela
. In July 2008, PCV earned a public rebuke from President Chávez for its decision to hold street protests against the visit of conservative Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
.
Following the December 2005 legislative election
, eight PCV members were elected as deputies to the National Assembly
:
The PCV publishes Debate Abierto (Open Debate) and Tribuna Popular (Popular Tribune). The youth wing of PCV is Juventud Comunista de Venezuela (Communist Youth of Venezuela).
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. It remained the main leftist political party in Venezuela from its foundation in 1931 until it split into rival factions in 1971.
History
The PCV was founded in 1931 as a clandestine organization during the military dictatorship of Juan Vicente GómezJuan Vicente Gómez
Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón was a military general and de facto ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He was president on three occasions during this time, and ruled as an unelected military strongman for the rest of the era.-Early years:Gómez was a barely literate cattle herder and...
. It was initially led by Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Francisco José "Kotepa" Delgado. The PCV became the Venezuelan affiliate of the Communist International
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. A forerunner of the PCV, the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party
Venezuelan Revolutionary Party
Venezuelan Revolutionary Party was a Venezuelan revolutionary organization. It was founded in Mexico in 1926 by a group of exiled communists, which had taken part in activities of the Communist Party of Mexico and other Latin American leftwing groups...
, had been founded in exile in Mexico in 1926 and attempted a rebellion in Venezuela in 1929.
The PCV remained an illegal organization until 1941, when it entered into an alliance with the progressive military regime of Isaías Medina Angarita
Isaías Medina Angarita
Isaías Medina Angarita was a Venezuelan military and political leader, president of Venezuela from 1941 until 1945....
, following orders from Comintern for communist parties throughout the world to support governments that aided the allied war effort. The PCV was outlawed during the conservative military dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez was a soldier and Presidents of Venezuela from 1952 to 1958.-Career:Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez was born in Michelena, Táchira State. His father, Juan Pérez Bustamante, was a farmer; his mother, Adela Jiménez, a schoolteacher...
(1948–1958), when it played a key role in organizing the clandestine resistance to the regime, alongside activist from the (also banned) Acción Democrática party.
In 1952, despite remaining an illegal organization, PCV provided key support to the non-communist leftist party URD in elections organized by the military regime to legitimize its rule. When URD's election victory became apparent, the military ordered the ballot counting process stopped and refused to accept its defeat at the hands of the communist-supported opposition. The episode shifted the balance of power in the military from relative moderates to the hard-line faction led by Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez was a soldier and Presidents of Venezuela from 1952 to 1958.-Career:Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez was born in Michelena, Táchira State. His father, Juan Pérez Bustamante, was a farmer; his mother, Adela Jiménez, a schoolteacher...
, which substantially stepped up efforts to repress the clandestine opposition.
In 1958, the three main non-communist opposition parties (Accion Democratica, COPEI
COPEI
Copei – Social Christian Party of Venezuela is a third way political party in Venezuela. The name stands for Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente...
and URD) made a conscious choice to exclude PCV from the power-sharing agreement, (the Punto Fijo Pact
Punto Fijo Pact
Punto Fijo Pact was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of Venezuela's three main political parties in 1958: Acción Democrática, COPEI and Unión Republicana Democrática, for the acceptance of the 1958 presidential elections, and the preservation of the rising democratic regime.-...
) that would underpin the transition to democracy.
Appearing on a Venezuelan election ballot for the first time in the 1958 election
Venezuelan presidential election, 1958
General elections were held in Venezuela on 7 December 1958. The presidential elections were won by Rómulo Betancourt of Democratic Action, who received 49.2% of the vote, whilst his party won 73 of the 132 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 32 of the 51 seats in the Senate...
, PCV backed the candidacy of URD's Wolfgang Larrazábal
Wolfgang Larrazábal
Wolfgang Enrique Larrazábal Ugueto , commander of the Venezuelan Navy, became President of Venezuela following the overthrow of Marcos Pérez Jiménez on 23 January 1958....
and received 3.2% of the vote (84,451 votes), contributing towards Larrazábal's total of 34.88%. The figure understates the party's influence in Venezuelan politics at the time, which stemmed less from its mass support than from its highly disciplined internal organization, including many full time party organizers, and its ideological and financial ties to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
In the early 1960s, inspired by the Cuban Revolution, the party became much more radical and launched a guerrilla war against the newly elected AD government led by Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello , known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Accion Democratica, Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th century...
, causing it to be outlawed once more. The PCV guerrilla effort was unable to mobilize substantial support from the Venezuelan peasantry, which largely supported Betancourt's reformism, and was unable to mount a serious military challenge to the new regime. Disillusioned with the guerrilla experience, the majority of PCV members split away from the party in 1971 to enter electoral politics as part of the reformist Movement toward Socialism
Movement for Socialism (Venezuela)
Movement for Socialism is a center-left political party in Venezuela.-History:The Movement for Socialism is a social-democratic political party in Venezuela. MAS was founded in 1971 by a faction of the Communist Party of Venezuela, with a view to emphasising a socialist message...
(MAS). At the same time, a much smaller group of activists split off to form the trade-union based party La Causa Radical
Radical Cause
The Radical Cause is a working class political party in Venezuela, part of the Venezuelan opposition to president Hugo Chavez...
, better known as Causa R, a forerunner of today's Patria Para Todos party. Remaining Communist fighters were later given a general amnesty by President Rafael Caldera
Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez was president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999.Caldera taught sociology and law at various universities before entering politics. He was a founding member of COPEI, Venezuela's Christian Democratic party...
as part of his "pacificacion" process. (Controversial matter. See: Discussion)
In the following years, the PCV became a marginal force in Venezuelan politics. The party received 0.7% of the national vote in the 1973 elections, 0.5% in the 1978 election, 1% in 1983, and 0.3% in both the 1988 and 1993 elections: with its high water mark coming in 1983, with 67,681 votes.
In the 1993 presidential elections
Venezuelan presidential election, 1993
General elections were held in Venezuela on 5 December 1993. The presidential elections were won by Rafael Caldera of National Convergence, who received 30.5% of the vote. Democratic Action remained the largest party in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, which were elected on separate ballots for...
, the PCV endorsed Rafael Caldera
Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez was president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999.Caldera taught sociology and law at various universities before entering politics. He was a founding member of COPEI, Venezuela's Christian Democratic party...
, a member of the Convergencia
National Convergence
The National Convergence is a conservative/Christian democratic political party in Venezuela. It was founded in 1993 by former President of Venezuela Rafael Caldera, successfully gaining a second term in the Venezuelan presidential election, 1993. From 1995 to 2004 Eduardo Lapi held the...
alliance. PCV broke with President Caldera in 1996.
PCV in the Chávez Era
In the presidential elections of 1998, the PCV backed Hugo ChávezHugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
adding 81,979 votes (1.25% of the national vote) to Chávez's total of 3,673,685 votes. In the 2006 presidential election, the PCV ticket received 2.9% of the National vote, contributing a haul of 342,227 to Chávez's total of 7,309,080 votes. These results make PCV the 4th largest party in the Chávez coalition.
The PCV has articulated its belief that the transition to socialism in Venezuela will be slow and evolutionary. The party remains a small but vocal part of the Chávez governing coalition.
After 2007, relations with the Chávez government have become increasingly strained due to PCV's refusal to merge with President Chávez's new United Socialist Party of Venezuela
United Socialist Party of Venezuela
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela is the name of a democratic socialist political party in Venezuela which resulted from the fusion of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivarian Revolution led by incumbent President Hugo Chávez...
. In July 2008, PCV earned a public rebuke from President Chávez for its decision to hold street protests against the visit of conservative Colombian President Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe
Alvaro Uribe Vélez was the 58th President of Colombia, from 2002 to 2010. In August 2010 he was appointed Vice-chairman of the UN panel investigating the Gaza flotilla raid....
.
Following the December 2005 legislative election
Venezuelan parliamentary election, 2005
The 2005 Venezuela parliamentary election took place on 4 December 2005. The election sent 167 deputies to the National Assembly of Venezuela, 12 deputies to the Latin American Parliament and 5 deputies to the Andean Parliament...
, eight PCV members were elected as deputies to the National Assembly
National Assembly of Venezuela
The National Assembly is the legislative branch of the Venezuelan government. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based...
:
- Roberto Hernández
- Diluvina Cabello
- Germán Ferrer
- Oscar Figuera
- Edgar Lucena
- Chiche Manaure
- Omar Marcano
- David Velásquez
The PCV publishes Debate Abierto (Open Debate) and Tribuna Popular (Popular Tribune). The youth wing of PCV is Juventud Comunista de Venezuela (Communist Youth of Venezuela).