Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:32:49.167Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Venezuelan Left in the Era of the Popular Front, 1936–45

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Steven Ellner
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Comintern's adoption of the popular front strategy in August 1935 marked a new stage in the history of world Communism which lasted until the end of World War II. Communist leaders embarked on this course in the hope of isolating the fascist movement which was then in the ascendant throughout the world. Their strategy was to create coalitions (‘popular fronts’) of progressive groupings on the basis of a reformist program and anti-fascist rhetoric. This conciliatory position towards the rest of the left represented a sharp departure from the policy of previous years when Communists frequently denounced their leftist rivals as ‘ social fascists’.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , May 1979 , pp. 169 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 McKenzie, Kermit E., Comintern and Western Revolution, 1928–1943 (New York, 1964), pp. 140–63.Google Scholar

2 Libro Rojo del General López Contreras (Caracas, 1975), p. 141.Google Scholar

3 Gustavo Machado (PCV Central Committee), private interview, 2, July 1976. All interviews took place in Caracas unless stated otherwise; following the name of the interviewee is his party affiliation and position during the 1936–45 period.

4 El Martillo (underground newspaper), Mar. 1938, p. 8; Aug. 1938, p. 2.

5 Rodolfo Quintero (President, Unión Popular Venezolana), private interview, 28 Apr. 1976.

6 Biblioreca de Documenios Históricos; Aportes a la Historia del PCV (Maracaibo, n.p.,1971), p. 46; Eduardo Machado (PCV Central Committee), private interview, 6 May 1976.

7 Alexander, Robert Jackson, Communism in Latin America (New Brunswick, N.J., Rñtgers Univ. Press;, 1957), p. 256.Google Scholar

8 Juan Pirela (pseud. for Juan Fuenmayor), ‘The Place of Venezuela among the Democratic Nations ’, The Communist (Oct. 1939), p.956.

9 Fuenmayor (PCV Sec. General), private interview, 18 Mar. 1976.

10 Alexander, op. cit., pp. 27–8.

11 Aquí Está, 16 09. 1942, p. 6; Ricardo Martínez (Member of Secretariat of Political Bureau of PCV), private interview, 3 May 1976.

12 Aquí Estál, 7 Oct. 1942, p. 6.

13 El Heraldo (Caracas), 24 Oct. 1944, p. 8; 25 Oct. 1944, p. 8.

14 Partido Comunista de Venezuela, ‘Informe del C.R.A.: La V Conferencia Regional de Ia Región Z’, (mimeographed, internal document), 1944 (?), Zulia, p. 13.

15 Tiempo (Mexico City), 18 Dec. 1942, p. 25.Google Scholar

16 Fuenmayor, private interview, 16 July 1976.Google Scholar

17 Aquí Estál, 29 Apr. 1942, p. 4.Google Scholar

18 Juan Jacobo González (AD oil workers' leader), private interview, 20 Nov. 1975.Google Scholar

19 Jose Martínez Pozo (PCV, President of Unión de Trabajadores de Zulia), private interview, 4 Aug. 1976 (Maracaibo, Ven.).Google Scholar

20 El Partido Democrático Venezolano y su Proceso: Documentos (Caracas, Editorial Elite,1938), p. 170 (hereafter referred to as El P.D.V.).Google Scholar

21 Comité Ejecutivo Nacional (CEN) of the Partido Democrático Nacional (PDN), ‘Fijación de Posición con Respecto al P.C.’, Boletin Interno (Caracas), No. 12, 09 Feb. 1938, pp. 2–3.Google Scholar

22 Luís Lander (member of the CEN of the PDN), private interview, 9 June 1976.Google Scholar

23 El P‘.D.V.’ op. cit., p. 169; Eduardo Gallegos Mancera (PCV leader), private interview, 5 Nov. 1975. The betancourtistas (who were later to play leading roles in Acción Democrática) included Valmore Rodríguez, Ricardo Montilla, and Raúl Leoni as well as Gonzalo Barrios and Juan Oropeza who had closely identified with the ARDI program. Among the generation of ‘36’ Pedenistas were Pedro Ortega Díaz, Antonio léidenz, Luis Lander, Eduardo Gallegos Mancera, José Antonio Gallegos Mancera, Alberto López Gallegos and Cuillermo Veloz Mancera.Google Scholar

24 UNR (Caracas), 10 Dec. 1936, p. 3.Google Scholar

25 El‘P.D.V.’, op. cit., pp. 572–3.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., p. 567.

27 Ahora (Caracas), 9 Feb. 1942, p.2; La Voz del Pueblo (Caracas), 23 Oct. 1936, p. 3.Google Scholar

28 Luis Be1trán Prieto Figueroa (AD Second Vice-President), private interview, 23 June 1976.Google Scholar

29 José Marcano, PDN, AD, President of the Asociacidon Nacional de Empleados, private interview, 4 May 1976. This left tendency included Luis Lander of the PDN's Comité Ejecutivo Nacional (CEN); José Marcano, President of the Asociació n Nacional de Empleados; Brea, Cirilo J., ‘President of Caracas’ Asociació n General de Choferes; Inocente Palacios, the PDN's Secretary of Organization; and Josefina Juliac de Palacios, a leading militant in the women's rights movement.Google Scholar

30 Comité Directivo Nacional (CDN), of the PDN, ‘ Tribunal Disiplinario del P.D.N.’ (mimeographed internal document), Dec. 1939, p. 6. Raú l Leoni became a leading figure in Acció n Democrática and served as the nation's president, 1963–1968. Luis.B.Prieto is currently president of the Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo (MEP).Google Scholar

31 CDN of the PDN, op. cit., pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

32 Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa, private interview, 23 June 1976. Accián Democrática expelled Palacios in 1944, ostensibly because of underhand dealings with the Medina Angarita administration.Google Scholar

33 Castillo, Ruben Carpio, Accián Democrática, 1941–1971 (Caracas, Ediciones Reptúiblica, 1971), p. 41; Humberto Hernández (AD, transportation workers leader), private interview, 2 Apr. 1976.Google Scholar

34 Fuenmayor, 1928–1948: Veinte Años de Politica (Madrid, 1968), p. 201. In 1946, Villalba founded theUnion Republicana Democrática (UNR) and has been that party's undisputed leader ever since.Google Scholar

35 CEN of the PDN, ‘Sobre las Proposiciones de Pacto que ha hecho ci PCV…’, Boletin Interna (Caracas), No. 15, 9 May 1938.Google Scholar

36 Betancourt, ‘Sentido y Importancia de una Jornada Electoral ’, Acción Liberal (Bogotá), July 1937, pp. 37–41.Google Scholar

37 José Marcano, private interview, 2 June 1976. Andrés Eloy Blanco besides being a leading member of AD, was one of Venezuela's most celebrated poets until his untimely death in 1955.Google Scholar

38 Aquí Esiál, 26 May 1942, p. 6.Google Scholar

39 Pedro Bernardo Pérez Salinas (AD's Director of Labor and Agriculture), private interview, 27 Nov. 1975.Google Scholar

40 Acción Democrática (Caracas), 21 Mar. 1944, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

41 Malavé Vilalba (PDN, AD, Sec. General of the Federación de Trabajadores del D.F. y Edo. Miranda), private interview, 24 Aug. 1976.Google Scholar

42 José González Navarro (PDN, AD, shoe workers' leader), private interview, 7 Apr. 1976.Google Scholar

43 The three major AD schisms of the 1960S resulted in the formation of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR) in 1960, ARS in 1962, and the Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo (MEP) in 1967. Many of those belonging to the anti-betancourtista tendency during the 1940s became leading members of these parties. General Histories of Accián Democrática include: Alexander, Robert Jackson, The Venezuelan Democratic Revolution (New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers Univ. Press, 1964);Google ScholarCastillo, Ruben Carpio, Accidn Democrática, 1941– 1971 (Caracas, 1971);Google ScholarMartz, John, Accián Democrática (Princeton, N.J., Princeton Univ. Press, 1966);CrossRefGoogle ScholarLevine, Dan, Conflict and Political Change in Venezuela (Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press, 1973).Google ScholarAD leaders deny that internal political tendencies afflicted the party from its outset and insist that the Cuban revolution was the earliest ideological antecedent of the splits of the 1960s. This assertion has influenced historians who have written on the party. In the works of Robert Jackson Alexander, Dan Levine and Ruben Carpio Castillo no mention is made of AD's internal differences during the popular front era, which would seem essential for any analysis of the factionalism of the 1960s. John Martz acknowledges that the party faced conflicting tendencies in the 1940s but fails to specify what they were. Martz, Accián Democrática, p. 175.Google Scholar

44 Petkoff, Teodoro, Proceso a la Izquierda (Barcelona, 1976), pp. 57–61. The Movimiento At Socialismo (MAS), a break-off of the PCV, is the main party which has adopted this position.Google Scholar