Communist Party of Venezuela

The Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) is a Venezuelan political party of Marxist-Leninist ideology that was born on March 5, 1931, being the oldest contemporary party in Venezuela. Being a party of Marxist-Leninist ideology, it stands as a party of the proletarian class in which workers, peasants, revolutionaries and youth converge, in the search for the establishment of a socialist State, which allows the transition to communism. In 2020 they separated from the Great Patriotic Pole government coalition.

History

Origin

The main precursor of socialist and communist ideas in Venezuela was Pío Tamayo, who studied Marxism, and who was imprisoned by Juan Vicente Gómez for his way of thinking, and once in jail, in the vaults of the Castle Libertador de Puerto Cabello founded "La Carpa Roja", a space for political education, study and debate, there he began to train a radicalized sector of the 1928 student generation, he taught them classes and puts them in contact with the foundations of Marxism-Leninism. Among these students, Rodolfo Quintero, Kotepa Delgado, Miguel Otero Silva, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Fernando Key Sánchez, Miguel Acosta Saignes and Raúl Osorio stand out. It is important to clarify that Pío Tamayo was never a member of the PCV during his lifetime. However, his work towards the future construction of the PCV was so important that in 1978 the Political Bureau granted him, post mortem, the PCV honorary militant card.

Among its background is also the work carried out by PCV figures such as Gustavo Machado and Salvador de la Plaza, who produced the first outline of a Marxist analysis of Venezuela, which they titled The true situation of Venezuela. These two Venezuelans, along with other Latin American revolutionaries, created the Anti-Imperialist League of America and published its organ El Libertador (1925-1928). They collaborated in the construction of the communist parties of Mexico and Cuba, creating an important polyclass organization called the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party (PRV). It must also be noted that the origin of the founding of the PCV is linked to the participation of Venezuelan members of communist parties from other countries.

Additionally, the work carried out in the Venezuelan labor movement and the students, organized into three groups: the first group called “Lecciones obreras” made up of Rodolfo Quintero, Kotepa Delgado, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Ángel Márquez and Pedro Juliac; The second group called "Pomposo", which managed to bring together more than 30 people and edited What every worker should know, was made up of Raúl Osorio, Víctor García Maldonado, Juan José Núñez Morales, Gustavo González, José A. Vásquez, Rafael Medina Febres, Luis Useche; and the group from Maracaibo from the Baralt and Urdaneta squares made up of Ramón Abad Jr., Raúl Cabrera, José Antonio Mayobre, Isidro Valles, Elio Montiel, Olga Luzardo, Espartaco González, Eduardo Arcila Farías, Gabriel Bracho Montiel and others.

The activity of the PCV was limited from its foundation for several reasons, the repression of the dictatorship of General Gómez, the illegality of the communist actions in Venezuela and the policy directed from the USSR, which at that time suggested the militancy of communists within legal parties.

Creation of the Communist Party of Venezuela

During the 1930s, there was the Caribbean Bureau, an organization that was part of the Communist International and whose functions were to organize, coordinate, and attend to the communist parties in the Caribbean countries.

At the beginning of 1931, the Caribbean Bureau sent Aurelio Fortoul to Caracas with the mission of organizing the Communist Party in Venezuela. Fortoul opened a cabinet of architecture, since he was an architect, which was located in Caracas, and very prudently began to gather several possible party members separately. This is how the first meeting was held and the first PCV Cell was created with Tomás Aquino Torres, Tomás del Carmen Torres, José Antonio Mayobre, Víctor García Maldonado; Raúl Osorio and Aurelio Fortoul were subordinated to that cell. Aquino Torres was elected provisional secretary of that first cell. In later days, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Kotepa Delgado, Rodolfo Quintero and Fernando Key Sánchez joined this first cell of the PCV.

With the help of Joseph Kornfeder, Carmen Fortoul and Guillermo Hernández Rodríguez, who were graduates of the Moscow Leninist School of Cadres, the PCV began to be organized. These three characters participated in the transformation of the Revolutionary Socialist Party of Colombia, The Marxist-Leninist party, to convert it into the Colombian Communist Party on April 6, six cells and a radio committee were created, whose secretary was Ramón Abad and treasurer Roberto Maggi. The number of cells continued to grow, as well as radio committees, and fractions were formed in the trade unions.

In March 1931, El Martillo, the propaganda organ of the Communist Party of Venezuela, emerged in mimeographed form, disseminating Marxist propaganda. On May 1, 1931, the first communist manifesto of Venezuela was distributed, which was titled The struggle for bread and land, and was signed by the provisional central committee of the PCV, the printing of that document was brought from Colombia by Joseph Kornfeder.

On May 29, due to the imprudence of a member and the action of an informer, the place where the courses were given was located, that is, the architecture office of Aurelio Fortoul, and they were arrested by the Gomez police 10 executive members of the existing organization, forty workers and several students. Among the detainees were Aurelio and Mariano Fortoul, Ramón Abad Manuel Simoza, Felipe Escobar, Kotepa Delgado, Felipe Escobar, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Raúl Osorio, Víctor García Maldonado and the very young Fernando Key Sánchez, among others.

By 1932, some 300 militants were organized in cells and there were about 600 sympathizers in a trial period. By February 1932, a regional conference is convened and held, with thirty delegates, and a provisional central committee is elected.

Entry into the Communist International

July 25, 1935, the VII Congress of the Communist International was inaugurated, a congress in which the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) was admitted as a full member of the Communist International. Since the creation of its first cell in 1931, the PCV has maintained close ties with the Communist Parties of France, Colombia and the United States, as well as with the sectoral organizations of the Communist International such as the Caribbean Bureau, to which Aurelio Fortoul was appointed. April 13, 1931 reported the creation of the first cell of the PCV. Thus, in Protocol A No. 463, dated August 8, 1935, the members of the Political Committee of the Communist International agreed to create a commission to report on the incorporation of the Communist Parties of: Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico as sections of the Communist International, these being incorporated on August 20, 1935, a fact that was reflected in Protocol No. 43, of the final session of the VII Congress, 23rd day of session.

Structuring in hiding

After the death of Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935, a process known in Venezuela as the "democratic transition" began with the appointment of Eleazar López Contreras as president in 1936 that promoted the formation of political parties, however the Constitution was reformed, whose article 32, paragraph VI, established: «Communist and anarchist doctrines are considered contrary to the independence, to the political form and to the social peace of the nation; and those who proclaim, propagate or practice them, will be considered as traitors to the country and punished according to the law".

Due to all these situations, it was impossible to establish the PCV as a legal organization, many of its leaders had been sent into exile or were in prison, in the same way many of them had double militancy, clandestinely militated in the PCV and They also belonged to other political organizations such as the Progressive Republican Party concentrated in an urban environment, whose members were mostly workers, but led by sectors of the middle class, intellectuals, and students, which had the majority of party militants in its ranks. communist, this party was led by clandestine PCV militants such as Rodolfo Quintero, Miguel Acosta Saignes, Carlos Irazábal, Miguel Otero Silva, Ramón Volcán, Guillermo Mujica and Víctor García Maldonado; the Venezuelan Organization Movement (ORVE), fundamentally made up of intellectuals and personalities of the time (ORVE militants had a Marxist orientation before the arrival of Rómulo Betancourt), there was also the reconstructed Federation of Students of Venezuela Political Organization (FEV-OP) and led by PCV militants such as Eduardo Gallegos Mancera and Pedro Ortega Díaz, they were also part of the regional parties Bloque Popular (BP) and the Bloque Nacional Democrático (BND) led by Gabriel Bracho, from Zulia; which were located in areas of oil activity, oriented towards the proletariat of the country, among the few organizations of the PCV at the national level, was the PCV of Zulia led by Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Kotepa Delgado, Espartaco González, José Martínez Pozo, Manuel Taborda, Natividad García Salazar Max García Salazar, Antonio Villasmil Luzardo, Ángel Emiro Ávila and Olga Luzardo. During that time the PCV consolidated itself as a party of the working class, having its fort in the Zulia state with the workers of the oil sector, in Caracas with bakers, shoemakers and students, while in the rest of the country peasants, fishermen stood out. and the revolutionary intellectuals.

1936 oil strike

Oil strike 1936.

In the year 1936, during the month of December, an oil strike was carried out in Venezuela, being the first of its kind, with the direction of different members of the PCV, highlighting the participation of Manuel Taborda, José Martínez Pozo, Luis Emiro Arrieta and Rodolfo Quintero, who were in charge of directing a large part of the working mass of said strike, as well as the active participation of Max García, Domingo Mariani, Isidro Valles, Jesús Faría and Olga Luzardo, all militants and communist leaders..

The strike consisted of a work stoppage of more than 20,000 workers at the service of transnational oil companies, who demanded better working conditions, since the conditions at the time were aberrational: excessively low wages, unsanitary conditions, forced labor, constant accidents and deaths at work, humiliation of workers, lack of benefits, among other forms of worker exploitation, which began on December 14, and ended abruptly, after a violent military and police repression against the workers. workers, after the signing of the Decree of President Eleazar López Contreras, of January 22, 1937, which put an end to the conflict with the simple Pyrrhic increase of one bolivar to the salary of the workers.

For that year in the state of Zulia, the PCV had its best cadres with a purely proletarian base and a very well-defined structure, which allowed it to play a fundamental role in the process of establishing different unions and federations of unions, for For example, Manuel Taborda had the responsibility of directing the oil workers unions of Mene Grande, San Lorenzo and Maracaibo. During the strike, the workers preparing for combat had formed a clandestine Central Committee to lead the strike, made up of Isidro Valles (who chaired it), Dilío Marín, José Antonio Mayobre, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Felipe Hernández.

First National Conference

Plaque commemorative of the First National Conference of the Party at the Bolivar Avenue of the City of Maracay

In 1937, the communist cadres began to gather on the initiative of Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Kotepa Delgado, this resulted in the celebration of the I National Conference of the PCV, which was held on August 8, 1937 in the city of Maracay, specifically in the house of a communist militant named Víctor Paiva, 17 delegates and 4 logistics assistants participated, among the participating delegates were; for the state of Carabobo: Kotepa Delgado, Antonio José León and Luis Evaristo Ramírez; for Zulia State: Jacobo Belzicky, Jesús Faría, Espartaco González and José Martínez Pozo; for the Federal District: Alfredo Conde Jahn, Fernando González, Pedro Juliac, José Antonio Mayobre and Miguel Otero Silva; for the state of Lara: Andrés Guevara, Emigdio Peña and Pedro Pablo Piña; for Táchira state: Julio Álvarez and for Sucre state: Juancho Castro. From the results of this first conference, the leadership of the PCV was established, its first Central Committee being chosen, and certain lines of political action were ordered, among which the abandonment of communist militancy in other polyclass legal parties stood out. In the same way, in this conference the Marxist-Leninist character of the organization and the classist definition of the party are reaffirmed, from this first conference the position of general secretary of the PCV also arises, for which Juan Bautista Fuenmayor was elected in absentia, who He was in hiding, so he could not immediately assume the position.

In 1937, another manifesto of the Communist Party of Venezuela emerged, in which its organization was announced at the national level, and a clear position was established regarding the problems that were arising in the country at that time. It fell to Alonso Ojeda Olaechea to publish and reproduce said manifesto, containing the results of the First National Conference of the PCV, which was entitled "Give face". In October of that year, the First Plenum of the Central Committee of the PCV was held in Caracas, where the ideological bases of the Party were established, being formally constituted and thus beginning its first period of clandestine action. In that first plenary session, Jorge Saldivia Gil was chosen as provisional secretary general to occupy the position while Juan Bautista Fuenmayor remained in hiding.

Juan Bautista Fuenmayor.

In April 1938 El Martillo reappeared as the organ of the central committee of the PCV. Its main editor was Alonso Ojeda Olaechea and the PCV always managed to evade security organizations for its printing and distribution. Starting in 1938, the PCV began to support the government of López Contreras, considering that it was working to solve the needs of Venezuelans, but starting in 1940, the PCV began to disagree with the government, alleging its weakness in the face of oil management. against the United States.

Support for the presidential candidacy of Rómulo Gallegos

In 1941 the PCV decided to support the presidential candidacy of Rómulo Gallegos. And the winner was General Isaías Medina Angarita, whom the PCV had branded as a "fascist", since Isaías Medina Angarita openly expressed his admiration for Benito Mussolini, this added to the fact that President Medina was a military man and the PCV thought it would be a government militaristic and authoritarian.

During the government of Isaías Medina Angarita

Shortly after the new cabinet was installed, the PCV would support it, even in an edition of El Martillo a note was made indicating that the government of Medina Angarita was beginning to show signs of being a progressive government. By 1941 communist activities were still prohibited in the country, although the Medina government began to legalize parties. In 1942, the weekly Aquí Está was founded by Miguel Otero Silva, Carlos Augusto Léon and Ernesto Silva Tellerías. Aquí Está replaced El Martillo as the press organ of the Communist Party of Venezuela.

During the 1940s, the conditions were given to strengthen the development of the labor union movement. Among the most strengthened union organizations, the Union of Workers of Zulia led by José Martínez Pozo and Jesús Correa, and the Union of Workers Oil tankers directed by Jesús Faría.

In 1944 the IV National Conference of the PCV was held and in it the creation of the Unión Popular Venezolana (UPV) was approved, which functioned as a “legal front” of the PCV during the government of Isaías Medina Angarita, this in order to to avoid the application of subsection VI. With the creation of the UPV, two parties of communist ideology were united, such as the Municipal Union and the Zuliana Unification League. Later, they would participate in the pro-government coalition together with the ruling Venezuelan Democratic Party (PDV) in the municipal elections the following year. The communists began to grow within the Venezuelan unions to such an extent that by 1944 they controlled 109 of the 150 formally constituted.

His main political rival was the Acción Democrática (AD) party, which caused the UPV to be dismantled through the Congress of the Republic because communist activities were constitutionally prohibited and indirectly obtained control of the unions.

In the middle of 1945, the weekly Unidad was created, which was the opposite of everything published in Aquí Está, since this publication began to publish articles promoting «browderism», understood as a third way that would reconcile capitalism with communism. One of its main editors was one of the founding members of the PCV Rodolfo Quintero.

First legal stage of the PCV

On October 9, 1945, the Constitution was reformed, item VI was repealed. The PCV is legal for the first time, the name of the Communist Party of Venezuela is formally adopted again, exercising its functions as General Secretary Juan Bautista Fuenmayor. The PCV would once again control part of the unions that it had lost a year earlier after AD's initiative.

On October 18, 1945, Medina Angarita was overthrown during the Coup d'état, which was led by the young sectors of the Armed Forces and certain civilian sectors, such as the Acción Democrática (AD) militants. That era is historically known as the October Revolution or the Adeco Triennium, due to the rise of AD to power, first when Rómulo Betancourt became president of the Revolutionary Junta of Government (from 1945 to 1948). Those three years were characterized politically by the hegemony of the ruling party over the other three opposition parties.

From November 28 to December 3, 1946, the First Congress of the Communist Party of Venezuela was held, also called the "Congress of Unity", in said congress the unification of criteria was sought in the political-ideological line of the PCV, since there was a division between three groups, a group led by Juan Bautista Fuenmayor of a browderista tendency that kept the initials of the "PCV" party, although they called it "PCV-Bobito" which had the support of Jesús Faría that he was not a Browderista, but that he had been the object of attacks by some members of the second group led by Gustavo Machado, Rodolfo Quintero, Eduardo Machado and Luis Miquilena called "PCV-U" (United Communist Party) or "macha-miqui" group ", which was even legally registered under that name in February of that year, which also insisted on putting into practice the current of what became known as "browderism", which consisted among other things of having a legal party of communists that did not publicly proclaimed itself communist, this group proposed that the party be renamed UPV, and a third group led by Pedro Ortega Díaz, Miguel Otero Silva and Eduardo Gallegos Mancera known as "Group No" that did not agree with the positions of disunity of the other two sectors, and agreed with the idea of party unification; This third group, despite being a minority, would ultimately maintain supremacy over the other two, achieving the definitive unification of the PCV.

The first central committee and its corresponding political bureau that emerged from the Unity Congress, was made up of 25 militants: Luis Emiro Arrieta, Humberto Arrieta, Eduardo Blanco, Gabriel Casanova Esparza, Natalio Castillo, Jesús Faría, Andrés Fernández, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Max García, María González, Pedro Gutiérrez, Facundez López, Eduardo Machado, Gustavo Machado, Carlos Malavé, Pompeyo Márquez, José Martínez Pozo, Hipólito Pérez Mendoza, Manuel Isidro Molina, Jesús Nieves, Alonso Ojeda Oleaechea, Martín J Ramírez, Manuel Taborda, Eloy Torres and Bhilla Torres de Molina. After that first congress, the position of general secretary was replaced by a compound secretariat, which was made up of Gustavo Machado, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Luis Emiro Arrieta. In the same way, at the end of 1946, El Popular emerged as a press instrument, replacing the two rival media that had been publishing Aquí Está and Unidad.

During those years, the PCV participated in the Constituent Assembly of 1946, resulting in two assemblymen being elected, Gustavo Machado and Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, the first from the old Federal District and the second from Zulia state. The new Constitution of 1947 was signed by the parliamentary fraction of the PCV together with Acción Democrática, COPEI and the Unión Republicana Democrática (URD).

On September 16, 1947, the constitutive congress of the Communist Youth of Venezuela, known as JCV, was held. of the JCV Guillermo García Ponce. At this time Jesús Faría continues to be decisive, through the labor movement in the oil sector, Faría is appointed part of the secretariat made up of the PCV, which he replaces Luis Emiro Arrieta.

Later, the Communist Party of Venezuela decided to participate in the 1947 presidential and parliamentary elections with its own candidate, Gustavo Machado. The elections were held in December 1947, however, in both elections the vote for the PCV was very low, around 3%, with Jesús Faría being elected as senator, while Gustavo Machado, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and Alonso Ojeda Olaechea were elected. deputies.

Cover of the first edition Popular Tribune.

On February 17, 1948, the first issue of Tribuna Popular appeared, under the direction of Gustavo Machado, Tribuna Popular was born to replace El Popular. Tribuna Popular together with the newspaper El Nacional, will be temporarily suspended for having denounced the abuses of the National Security Directorate, in terms of repression and mistreatment of political militants refers.

In August 1948, the II Congress of the PCV was held, which at that time had 17,000 militants duly registered in the party. During this three-year period, in the political field the PCV fought mainly with Acción Democrática for control of the labor unions and the trade union centrals at the regional and national level.

Dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez

In 1948, a new coup d'état stripped President Rómulo Gallegos of power. This insurrection was made up of the same group of soldiers who had participated in the 1945 coup led by Carlos Delgado Chalbaud and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, only this time they decided not to seek the support of any political party, despite this all the parties accepted The new regime was initially somewhat cautious, with the exception of the AD and the PCV who opposed it from the beginning, the former for having been deposed and outlawed and the latter because they knew that the military coup leaders were strongly anti-communist-anti-socialist. For the PCV, the partisan hegemony and the sectarianism of AD in general political life and particularly in the control of the unions was put an end to, but although the party was not outlawed, activities of any kind were not allowed.

In May 1950, the PCV organized a 48-hour strike in the oil sector, but it ended up spreading, causing the military government to formally ban the PCV and its publishing body, Popular Tribune, this happened exactly on May 13, 1950, beginning an escalation of persecution, imprisonment and assassinations of several of the leaders of the PCV, during this period Jesús Faría was imprisoned again, who was appointed general secretary of the PCV, position which was reinstated in the party statutes at a clandestine national conference in 1951, thus extinguishing the composite secretariat. Although by 1952 the PCV was outlawed, they called to support the URD in the Constituent Assembly elections, even getting several of its militants to obtain a seat, including Alberto Lovera for Lara state. However, those elections were fraudulent after General Marcos Pérez Jiménez ordered the suspension of the vote count that gave the URD a partial victory. In 1957 the central committee of the PCV met in the XIII Plenary Session and appointed a political bureau made up of Pompeyo Márquez, Alonso Ojeda Olaechea, Eloy Torres, Pedro Ortega Díaz and Guillermo García Ponce, later a group called the PCV and URD would be created on the initiative of "Patriotic Board", which was planning a coup against Pérez Jiménez, AD and COPEI would later join this movement.

Second legal stage of the PCV

On January 22, a general strike began in Venezuela and on January 23, 1958, Marcos Pérez Jiménez was overthrown, fleeing the country. The board of the Patriotic Board, made up of Fabricio Ojeda (URD), Guillermo García Ponce (PCV), Enrique Aristeguieta Gramcko (COPEI) and Silvestre Ortiz Bucarán (AD), is announced. During this stage, the participation of the Communist Party of Venezuela was decisive, however, once Pérez Jiménez was overthrown, the PCV made no effort to seize political power, much less to join the Governing Board.

U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon's caravan runs through Caracas and is attacked by left-wing protesters.

In 1958, already released, Jesús Faría assumed the party's general secretary, a position that had saved his life during 8 years that he was imprisoned and almost totally incommunicado. A Governing Board was formed, chaired by Wolfgang Larrazábal, the exiled leaders of the four main parties of that time return: Gustavo Machado (PCV), Jovito Villalba (URD), Rómulo Betancourt (AD) and Rafael Caldera (COPEI). The PCV allegedly orchestrated the attack against the caravan of Richard Nixon on May 13, 1958.

General elections are called to elect a president and parliamentarians (both senators and representatives), Edgar Sanabria replaced Rear Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal as president of said government board, who decided to run in the elections. Before these elections were held, a document known as the Puntofijo Pact was signed on October 31, 1958 between AD, COPEI and the URD, according to which these parties would commit to respecting the electoral results and creating a Unity Government. National. The PCV was excluded from said agreement at the initiative of AD, a party whose right wing was totally opposed to the communist doctrine, and on the other hand the rejection of COPEI after the evident opposition of the Catholic Church to the PCV for the same reason.

For those December 1958 elections, the PCV decided to support the candidate of the URD Wolfgang Larrazábal, who obtained close to 35% of the votes. In these elections, Rómulo Betancourt, from AD, was elected.

Repressive democracy and insurrectionary struggle

During the government of Rómulo Betancourt

After Rómulo Betancourt took office, he gave a speech in which he offended the communist party, ratifying his exclusion by not being considered for the "unity government" and announcing that he would take measures contrary to the doctrine communist. He likewise begins to attack the communists in each of his subsequent speeches.

In 1960 armed bands of right-wing trade unionists from Acción Democrática, known as "sotopoles" attacked communist trade unionists, the first to be attacked were the workers of the Emergency Plan on August 4, the Minister of Public Works Santiago Hernández Ron announced the end of the Emergency Plan initiated by the Governing Board in February 1958. Demonstrations and riots took place for several months, increasing repression by the government. The "Sotopol" attacks the youth sector of the left of democratic action, an event that produces the birth of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR).

On December 28, 1960, the workshops of the Popular Tribune were assaulted by the recently created General Directorate of Police, a month later, on November 29, the Government prohibited its publication, for so the PCV activated an emergency plan for its distribution. On January 11, 1961 in Caracas, the police brutally repressed the La Concordia demonstration, that day a group of workers demonstrated against unemployment, the balance of the confrontation resulted in the murder of 3 citizens, several injured and a large number of detainees. On January 12, Rómulo Betancourt offers a speech and launches the phrase "Shoot first, find out later." January 23 new constitution and guarantees are suspended.

On March 10, 1961, the III Congress of the PCV was installed, which would be destined to look for ways to conquer the masses, however as the days passed, and when the congress ended on March 18, it was decided approve the armed struggle as a means to gain power, with the dissenting opinion of Pedro Ortega Díaz and Alonso Ojeda Olaechea, who nevertheless complied with the measure taken by the central committee and joined the armed struggle.

On July 3, 1961, the former Supreme Court of Justice asked the Chamber of Deputies to search the houses and offices of Teodoro Petkoff, a member of the PCV, and Domingo Alberto Rangel of the MIR. The workshops of the Popular Tribune are taken over once again, and on July 13, 1961, Gustavo Machado denounces President Betancourt and the Minister of Interior for the raid on the premises where the newspaper is published. On August 2, 1961, the Delegate Commission of the National Congress agreed to suspend the parliamentary immunity of Deputy Teodoro Petkoff, at the request of the Supreme Court of Justice, three days later the Communist Party of Venezuela expressed in a statement its "rejection of the raid on the parliamentary immunity of Deputy Petkoff, considering it a new attack on the opposition and specifically on our party".

On August 27, 1961, Francisco «Chico» Velásquez, a social fighter and leader of the Communist Youth of Venezuela, was assassinated. in the Anzoategui state. On November 1, 1961, Livia Gouverneur, a UCV Psychology student and PCV militant, was murdered. This fact was marked in the history of the PCV, and she is remembered in the contemporary history of Venezuela as a martyr.

In 1961, JCV militants José Rafael Bosque, Efraín Enrique León, Rubén Palma, Antonio Paiva Reinoso and Girmán Bracamonte hijacked an AVENSA DC-6 plane, which covered the Maiquetía-Maracaibo flight route and carried 41 passengers. The youngsters forced the crew to fly over Caracas and launch pamphlets against the government's repression, this action is recorded as the first of its kind in the world. The operation bore the name of "Livia Gouverneur." These young people are known as "Los Aguiluchos".

On November 28, 1961, the Government of Betancourt ordered the state security forces to raid and occupy the premises in the Federal District of the Communist Party and the MIR, as well as arrest the militants and leaders of those parties. On the 29th, all the PCV and MIR premises were raided nationwide. Throughout the year 1961 the PCV published the weekly La Verdad, which was published without identification of those responsible or explicit political affiliation. This censorship would last until January 9, 1962, the date on which Tribuna Popular reappeared, however its workshops were assaulted and partially destroyed on January 22, 1962, our distributors and vendors were persecuted and harassed by the government and the armed bands of the AD party. On January 31, 1962, the PCV and MIR headquarters in various parts of the country were raided again and several of their militants were arrested. This caused a student strike to take place again and a crisis arose with the UCV authorities. On May 1, the Minister of Interior Relations announces that the PCV and MIR parties will be tried in the Courts of Justice as responsible for the creation and organization of guerrillas.

On May 4, 1962, a group of Marine Infantry officers rose up in arms against the Betancourt government in the Carúpano insurrection, known as the Carupanazo, which did not have the expected popular support and was put down in less than 24 hours. This event had the open and active participation of deputies Eloy Torres of the PCV, and Simón Sáez Mérida, of the MIR. This allowed President Betancourt on May 9 to issue Decree No. 752, in which he suspended the operation of the PCV and the MIR throughout the national territory and their main leaders were arrested.

Fortín Solano bombed in the Porteñazo.

A month later, in Puerto Cabello, a military action took place when the Marine Infantry battalion once again rose up against the government. In this coup attempt, known as the Porteñazo, some 400 people died in combat between the military rebels and government troops.

On November 14, 1962, the Caracas War Council submitted to a military trial militants of the PCV and the MIR and soldiers who had participated in the insurrections of the Carupanazo and the Porteñazo, a trial carried out at Fort Tiuna, the old "White Rabbit" farm that lasted less than 60 hours, where 150 political prisoners were sentenced, who were sentenced to more than 8 years in prison each. Later this number would exceed 500 prisoners. On November 15, President Betancourt addresses the country with a speech, which aims to discuss the request to the Supreme Court of Justice to outlaw the PCV and the MIR.

On September 28, 1963, the incident of the assault on the El Encanto tourist train arose, a media operation by the FALN guerrilla, which had great repercussions at the national level because during its execution 5 members of the FALN died National Guard. The Operation was called «Italo Sardi», some guerrillas called it «Olga Luzardo», and it did not have great importance, since said structure was not important for the fight that was taking place at that time, on the contrary it served as a pretext for President Betancourt will take further reprisals against the leftist parties.

On September 30th, PCV parliamentarians began to be illegally detained by SIFA agents, this day Jesús Faría was jailed, and the houses of PCV and MIR congressmen were raided. On October 1, 1963, Gustavo Machado of the PCV and Domingo Alberto Rángel of the MIR issued a press release in which they repudiated the action and clarified that their parties had nothing to do with the event. That same day, the Minister of the Interior announced the capture of 150 PCV and MIR activists. On October 3, the Supreme Court of Justice made the decision to ratify the executive's request to prohibit the activity of the PCV and MIR parties, also ordered the illegal detention of deputies Gustavo Machado, Jesús Faría (who had already been arrested), Pompeyo Márquez, Pedro Ortega Díaz and Guillermo García Ponce of the PCV, and Domingo Alberto Rangel, Jesús María Casal and Jesús Villavicencio of the MIR, who at that time enjoyed parliamentary immunity.

All these congressmen are deprived of their liberty, except Pompeyo Márquez and Guillermo García Ponce who would be arrested a few days later. With Jesús Faría in jail, Pompeyo Márquez took over as (provisional) general secretary of the PCV. When he was imprisoned, Alonso Ojeda Olaechea took over as acting general secretary. On October 3, 1963, circulation of the newspaper was also suspended El Venezolano, by order of the Minister of the Interior and Justice, since the newspaper had published the opinion on the participation of the PCV deputy Eloy Torres in the Carupanazo.

During the government of Raúl Leoni

In December 1963, Raúl Leoni was elected president, who would take office in 1964; however, the situation remained the same as with Rómulo Betancourt. On January 15, 1964, Pompeyo Márquez was arrested, for which reason Alonso Ojeda Olaechea, he is appointed general secretary (provisional) of the PCV. On October 9, 1964, what became known as "Operation Van Troi" was carried out, this operation was carried out by members of the JCV Argenis Martínez, Carlos Rey, Noel Quintero, Raúl Rodríguez and Luis Fernando Vera, who in turn were members of the FALN, and consisted of the kidnapping of Michael Smolen, with the aim of demanding the release of Nguyen Van Troi, a member of the Special Armed Action Unit of the National Front. of the Liberation of South Vietnam, had been taken prisoner in the former Saigon on May 9, 1964 by US troops. This fact triggered more repression, and that same year the communist leaders were persecuted and imprisoned.

In October 1965, Alberto Lovera was assassinated and other leaders of the PCV were made to disappear. A few days later, another prominent communist militant, Juan Pedro Rojas, died in the torture chamber of the Cachipo anti-guerrilla camp; Meanwhile, Donato Carmona, a member of the Central Committee of the PCV and former leader of the construction workers, continued to "disappear", never to be heard from again.

At the end of 1965, Douglas Bravo, commander of the José Leonardo Chirinos Guerrilla Front, which operated in Falcón state, was expelled from the PCV for not abiding by the lines of the central committee and leading a factional outbreak, this resulted in the later On April 23, 1966, Douglas Bravo founded the Party of the Venezuelan Revolution (PRV), taking with him several middle ranks of the PCV.

On March 18, 1966, Jesús Faría, who had been in prison since 1963, was expelled to the Soviet Union due to his poor health, a product of the poor conditions in which he was in prison. In Moscow he was received by a crowd made up of various sectors of the people and the Soviet Government.

In February 1967, the leaders of the PCV Teodoro Petkoff, Pompeyo Márquez and Guillermo García Ponce escaped from the San Carlos Barracks, they were all members of the PCV political bureau at that time. They did it through a tunnel whose construction was coordinated by Alonso Ojeda Olaechea and some Communist Youth militants, made under the street, which reached a house that was close to the prison, said house belonged to a Syrian named Simón Nehemet, better known as Simón "the Arab" and who had a commercial supply running in that house.

Once Pompeyo Márquez was released from prison, he took over again as (provisional) general secretary of the PCV.In April 1967, the VIII plenary session of the PCV Central Committee was held, in which the decision to abandon the weapons, return to the path of the masses and study what is related to the next electoral process. The fact of laying down their arms allowed the PCV to run in the general elections of 1968. On August 2, 1968, Jesús Faría returned to Venezuela, retaking the position of general secretary of the PCV.

For the 1968 elections, the PCV militants were allowed to participate under the name of Unión para Avanzar (UPA), who finally decided not to present a presidential candidate, but to present a list for the National Congress, in these elections they obtained the representation of a senator and five deputies. However, his support at the polls was diminished when a de facto bipartisan regime was established between the two great parties of the moment, AD and COPEI.

In December 1968 Rafael Caldera won the elections, in said elections COPEI could not obtain a majority in either the Senate or the Chamber of Deputies, in the latter the AD fraction was the majority, and threatened to boycott the management of Boiler through lack of quorum; however, with the position of UPA senator obtained by Eduardo Gallegos Mancera, COPEI could have the necessary quorum to activate the senate, after conversations between both parties an agreement was reached, the agreement was to legalize the PCV and the MIR, and UPA would quorum in the Senate, as would happen later.

Third legal stage of the PCV

On March 11, 1969, Rafael Caldera assumed the presidency, UPA made the necessary quorum to install the National Congress, but ratifying that its line will be totally opposed to the Caldera government and the AD majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Fulfilled the agreement, fifteen days later, former President Caldera announced that the PCV and the MIR were legalized, and a process of "pacification" of the country was opened, in this process an attempt was made to integrate into national political life, the majority of FALN activists. However, it is during his tenure that the student repression intensifies.

On May 22, 1969, there was an attack at the UCV by sectors of the youth of COPEI (governing party), who opposed a student movement made up of the youth of the PCV and other left-wing parties, who called for the academic renovation of the Central University of Venezuela, in the attack the general secretary of the Communist Youth of Venezuela, Alexis Adams, was wounded by a bullet. Through this fact, a famous photo published in Venezuelan newspapers emerges, in which a sergeant can be seen shooting the student while he himself remains lying on the floor.

On December 16, 1970, the XX plenary session of the Central Committee of the PCV met, internal differences grew, this was due to the fact that some leaders began to profess ideas adverse to Marxism-Leninism and a crisis arose through which they More than 20 party militants go to form a new party called "Movimiento al Socialismo (Fuerza Comunista)", which today is known simply as MAS. At the end of the year, a process of recensing and affiliation is carried out, in addition, the date of the IV Party Congress is set on January 23, 1971.

On January 23, 1971, the IV Congress of the PCV was held with 300 national delegates, resulting in the election of a new central committee and a new political bureau. On that occasion, the expulsion of 22 members of the political bureau was ratified, among them Teodoro Petkoff, Pompeyo Márquez, Eloy Torres, Carlos A. Pardo and some other leaders.

During the 1970s, the PCV was to have an active participation in the Venezuelan trade union movement, through the creation of a political front of the CUTV in 1972, called "Nueva Fuerza", which tried to be a unifying factor of The Popular Unity on this front also actively participates in the MEP and other groups. On July 26, 1974, the V Congress of the PCV was held, in which Jesús Faría was re-elected Secretary General and the representative position of president of the PCV, resulting in Gustavo Machado being elected, remaining in history as the first president of the Communist Party of Venezuela.

1980s

In 1980, in August the VI Congress of the PCV was held, in which the first and only (up to now) Party Program was approved, an outline of the route towards the construction of socialism in Venezuela, in the PCV ratifies its policy of the "patriotic anti-imperialist alliance" or "broad conjunction of democratic forces". In 1983, a broad electoral alliance of the left was achieved around the presidential candidacy of José Vicente Rangel, but the MAS broke the alliance and launches as a candidate for Teodoro Petkoff. These elections would be won by Jaime Lusinchi. However, the PCV manages to obtain three deputies to the national congress.

Communist Party of Venezuela in the ballot of the 1988 general elections of Venezuela.

In 1985, from October 23 to 27, 1985, the VII Congress of the PCV was held. In that congress, Alonso Ojeda Olaechea was elected as general secretary of the PCV, a position that Jesús Faría had held up to that date, and that the Ojeda Olaechea himself had occupied it provisionally in 1966. In 1988 he supported the candidacy of the psychiatrist and university professor Edmundo Chirinos, in those elections Carlos Andrés Pérez was the winner, the PCV obtained 24,652 votes, representing 0.34% From the results. However, the PCV manages to obtain a deputy to the national congress.

In 1989, the VIII Congress of the PCV was held, Trino Meleán is elected by the central committee, who assumes the general secretariat of the party. Towards the end of the 1980s, the PCV suffered the results of the decline of communism worldwide, with what would be known as the fall of the Berlin Wall, added to the discontent of Venezuelans who lost confidence in the Venezuelan electoral system, In the same way, the bad situation that the country was going through completely neglected, which saw how corruption took over the leadership of the nation. An example of general discontent was the social outbreak known as the Caracazo, which occurred on February 27, 1989. Another factor that influenced the downturn of the PCV in the 1980s was the division of the 1970s that continued to make a dent An example of this was the decrease in votes in all the electoral processes of the 70s and 80s, and the increase in votes in favor of the recently founded MAS (result of the largest split of the PCV) in these same decades.

1990s

Óscar Figuera, secretary general of the PCV since 1996.

In 1993, the political and commercial situation in Venezuela changed radically and the hegemonic parties until then lost a large number of votes. In the electoral confrontation of that year, the PCV decided to support Rafael Caldera, a politician from the traditional right but who led a multi-class movement with a leftist majority made up of various organizations from that political spectrum. Among the things that motivated the PCV to support Rafael Caldera, there were four important aspects; 1) Andrés Velásquez, a Venezuelan union leader, a member of the Causa Я party, rejected the support of the red rooster card, 2) It was a way of ending the hegemony of AD and COPEI, 3) Caldera had promised to free the military from the rebellion of February 4, 1992 and 3) Caldera had also promised not to go to the IMF or the World Bank for financial aid. Caldera, presidential candidate of that coalition, won the elections, however, a few months after this new government was installed, and the military had already been released on February 4, the PCV announced its break with President Caldera due to irreconcilable differences with the economic orientation and the general political direction of this, since the first thing he did was go to the IMF and the World Bank.

On July 29, 1996, Trino Melean, the party's general secretary, died. His position was occupied by Óscar Figuera by decision of the central committee of the PCV. By decision of the X National Conference of the PCV in 1998, this party became the first to officially support the presidential candidacy of Hugo Chávez. In those elections the results were favorable to Chávez, who obtained an overwhelming victory. The PCV obtained 81,187 votes, for a total percentage of 1.25%.

During the Bolivarian Revolution

Hugo Chavez

The PCV participates in the 1999 elections for deputies to the National Constituent Assembly of Venezuela called by the already elected president Hugo Chávez. Pedro Ortega Díaz, a PCV militant and elected deputy, signatory of the 1961 Constitution, was responsible for, being the oldest deputy, installing the Assembly on August 3, 1999, with the mission of preparing a New National Legal Order that should guide the nation through the new schemes of social, economic and political well-being.

Cantaclaro Theatre, host of the events of the Communist Party of Venezuela.

In the year 2000, the PCV once again supported President Chávez, obtaining 57,118 votes, which was equivalent to 0.91%. In 2005, once the parliamentary elections were held, the PCV obtained 94,606 votes, which which represented 2.7% of the electoral roll, managing to gain 7 seats, in what was the formation of the National Assembly elected for the period 2006-2011. Among the deputies elected were Óscar Figuera for Aragua state, Diluvina Cabello for Bolívar state, Douglas Eduardo Gómez for Carabobo state, Omar Marcano Rodríguez for Delta Amacuro state, Aleydys Manaure for Falcón state and Edgar Lucena for Táchira state.

In the 2006 Venezuelan presidential elections, the PCV obtained 340,499 votes, which represents 2.95% of the votes cast and places the PCV as the fourth party among Chávez's allies. the XIII Congress of the PCV, with an "extraordinary" character to decide the fate of the Party and discuss Hugo Chávez's proposal for the creation of a party that integrates all the forces of the Venezuelan left, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). After two months of internal debates, the Extraordinary Congress shows its "total support for President Chávez's proposals".

PCV headquarters in Monagas state.

In the political resolution that emanated from the aforementioned congressional process, the following was stated:

Just as to achieve victory in the anti-imperialist struggle requires the broadest unity of political and social forces at the national, continental and global levels, the advance towards socialism simultaneously demands the construction of a revolutionary party that brings together the cadres that express the most consequent positions of the classes and social layers historically committed to revolution and socialism; that it is constituted in the ideological, organized and organic masses that direct This political organization must express in its theory and in its social practice the historical and struggle traditions of our people of deep Bolivarian roots, as well as Marxism-Leninism applied to the concrete conditions of our homeland..

However, the result was non-integration for the formation of the PSUV, recognizing the need to create a movement or broad patriotic alliance, which groups together the revolutionary parties that support the Bolivarian process. In November 2007, the PCV presented itself as one of the parties that promoted the "yes" option to approve the constitutional reform project proposed by Hugo Chávez and the National Assembly.

In the 2010 parliamentary elections, held in September, the PCV obtained 162,919 votes, which represents 1.44% of the valid votes and makes it the tenth most voted Venezuelan party, and at the same time makes it the second party of the Chavista coalition, by managing to obtain 2.99% of the votes. PCV joins the Gran Polo Patriotico where it obtains a total of 489,941 votes, equivalent to 3.29% of the electorate.

Nicolas Maduro

In 2013, after the death of Hugo Chávez, new presidential elections arose, the PCV decided to unconditionally support the "worker" Nicolás Maduro, candidate who ensured the continuity of the Venezuelan revolutionary process. In those elections the PCV obtained a total of 283,678 votes, which represented 1.89%.

Mural with the acronyms and symbol of the PCV, the red rooster.

The political line of the Communist Party of Venezuela has always been clear, the party is not chavista, and it has been emphatic in recognizing that in Venezuela there is no socialism, but rentier capitalism, likewise the PCV does not recognize the socialism of the 21st century as a scientific doctrine.

News

PCV Headquarters in Maracay

The PCV remained in the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP) participating in different types of elections, always supporting former president Hugo Chávez in the elections in which he was a candidate, in the same way it supported his successor Nicolás Maduro; In the regional and municipal elections, it has mostly supported the GPP candidates, however the PCV has not agreed on some candidacies from some states or municipalities, in which it has nominated its own candidates, and which have been measured in against the GPP candidates, such is the case of Bolívar and Portuguesa states among others. Currently the Communist Party of Venezuela has two main deputies in the National Assembly, these two deputies are: Óscar Figuera (general secretary of the Central Committee of the PCV) elected by the Guárico state and Yul Jabour (secretary of Media and Propaganda of the central committee of the PCV) elected by the Yaracuy state, likewise has three substitute deputies who are Pedro Eusse (national secretary of the labor union movement) elected by the Portuguesa state Edgar Lucena elected by the Cojedes state Eduardo Linarez (national agrarian secretary) elected by the Falcón state, and nine deputies who are second substitutes, all elected in the parliamentary elections of December 6, 2015. On February 3, 2016, the National Assembly chose Óscar Figuera as deputy to the Latin American Parliament, while Yul Jabour was appointed as a deputy to the South American Parliament. In 2020, the party stops supporting the government of Nicolás Maduro and leaves the Great Patriotic Pole.

Symbols

Article 79 of the Statutes of the Communist Party of Venezuela states the following:

Article 79. The symbols of the Communist Party of Venezuela are the intertwined Hoz and Hammer, the five-point Red Star, the red rooster within a yellow circle and the red flag.

The official electoral symbol of the PCV is the red rooster within a yellow circle. The badge contains the full name and the initial letters: Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV).

The anthem of the Communist Party of Venezuela is La Internacional..

• As for the origin of the use of the red rooster, some say it was made by the militant of the PCV Gabriel Bracho, others say it was made by the communist painter Pablo Picasso.
• The origins of the rooster as a symbol are adopted by the fact that at the beginning of the PCV the working population of Venezuela was of a peasant majority, in addition, much of that working people were illiterate, so a rooster as a symbol would facilitate the identification of the party, joining the fact that the rooster is a brave animal that fights to death.
• It is also commented that the use of this logo dates back to the beginning of 1958, after a speech in which Gustavo Machado speaks in public, and sings "his truths" as a "gallo", another relationship that holds with Machado is the fact that he studied in France, where the symbol par excellence is the rooster.
• An anecdote, which has not been picked up by history, tells that one of the founders of the PCV Gustavo Machado, attending a summit in France had a meeting with Pablo Picasso militant of the French Communist Party who asked him about the symbol that the newly consolidated PCV would adopt, and this told him that they thought of a Red Gallo, days later they played the door of his room at the hotel in Paris, was the same Pablo Rojo^{[chuckles]required]}

In the same way, the colors and traditional symbols of communism worldwide are taken, the five-pointed star that represents the five forces that make up the revolutionary struggles that allow the transition to socialism, that is, the workers, the peasants, youth, intellectuals and the army. The hammer and sickle that represent the perfect union of workers (worker mass and peasant mass). In the same way, the red color represents the blood spilled by the communists in the revolutionary struggles, in addition to equality, since all human beings have the same red color blood and the yellow color (gold or gold in many cases) that represents the color of victory.^{[citation needed]}

PVC Auxiliary Bodies

The Communist Party of Venezuela has different organizations or mass political fronts, which are not regular party organizations but auxiliary forms for the work of the masses that will promote the constitution of broad fronts, as organizational political instruments to disseminate, develop and apply the program and the political line of the Party among specific sectors of the masses, therefore, the fraction does not substitute the function of the cell and the cellular life to which each and every member of the Party is obliged. The JCV, despite being considered an auxiliary body of the party, carries out its activities under the principle of political direction by the party and guaranteeing action based on what is established in the PCV statutes. Within the auxiliary bodies of the PCV, they find each other:

• National Working Class Fight Front.
• Corriente Clasista de Trabajadores Cruz Villegas.
• Clara Zetkin Women's Movement.
• Colectivo Clasista por la Salud y la Seguridad en el Trabajo Emigdio Cañizales Guédez.
• Corriente Clasista de Trabajadores Petroleros Jesús Faría.
• Corriente Clasista de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Educación Carmen Conzoño.
• Corriente Clasista Campesina Nicomedes Abreu.
• Alberto Lovera National Community Front.
• Collective Labor Lawyers Pedro Ortega Díaz.
• International Solidarity Committee.
• Instituto de Altos Estudios Bolívar Marx.
• Front of Professionals and Technicians Bethlehem Sanjuan.
• Communist Youth of Venezuela.
  • Front Estudiantil Livia Gouverneur.
  • Frente Estudiantil Secundarista Guerra y Millán
  • Organization of Pioneers Simon Bolivar

CVP Press

• Popular Tribune, newspaper
• Pico and Espuela, radio program

General Secretaries of the PCV

Splits

Since its founding and until the end of the XX century, like almost all the communist parties in the world, the PCV has suffered various splits, from which different relevant political parties have emerged:

• The first party to emerge from the PCV splits was the Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat in 1947, the members of the PCVU who did not accept the resolutions of the I Congress of the PCV, separated from the party and founded the PRP. Among the leaders who left were Rodolfo Quintero, Cruz Villegas, Luis Miquilena and Salvador de la Plaza. Rodolfo Quintero and Cruz Villegas would return to the PCV to never leave.
• On April 23, 1966 the Party of the Venezuelan Revolution created by guerrilla Douglas Bravo after being expelled from the Communist Party of Venezuela, this party was the political arm in the 60s of the FALN and was never registered in the National Electoral Council, the party uninformed in 1990.
• In 1971, Teodoro Petkoff and Pompeyo Márquez retire from the PCV and create the Movement to Socialism (MAS).
• In 1973 Alfredo Maneiro founded the Radical Cause usually abbreviated as the Cause of trade unionist laborist tendency, this party supported the nominations of Andrés Velásquez in the Presidential Election of Venezuela (1983), 1988 and 1993 and also those of Alfredo Ramos in the 1998 elections.
• In 1974 Guillermo García Ponce together with Eduardo Machado decided not to support the candidacy of Jesus Paz Galarraga, making statements in favor of the candidate of COPEI, Lorenzo Fernández, renounce the PCV and García Ponce forms the Communist Union Vanguardian party.
• In 2007 the call was made for the founding of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), by then-President Hugo Chávez, but for the reason that it was a political political organization that receives in its ranks different strata of the social classes and in the conviven exploited and exploited, the PCV decided not to participate. However, some members of the Central Committee decided to join the ranks of the then emerging party, within them were: Roberto Hernández Wohnsiedler, Jesús Faría Tortosa, Carlos del Vecchio, María León, Tatiana Delgado, Johnny Niño, Omar Marcano, Euro Faría, José Laguna, Iván Delgado, Freddy González, Leopoldo Niño, Enrique Franco, Juana García and Getulio Fonseca. In addition, some grassroots activists decided to join the formation of the PSUV.

Election results

Presidential Elections

Parliamentary elections

Elections to the Constituent Assembly

Municipal and regional elections