VENEZUELAN CP BACKS CUBANS AGAINST "BORBA"
The dispute between the Communist party of Cuba and the League of Yugoslav Communists, which flared up again when the Cubans opposed seating a Yugoslav delegation at the Tricontinental Conference in January-,. has resulted in some sharp exchanges between publications of the two parties. [See World Outlook April 1.] The Communist party | of Venezuela has also become involved in. the™ conflict. .
Borba, the official Yugoslav publication, declared in an editorial January 24 that according to reports from Venezuela the leaders of the Communist party of Venezuela, held in prison since 1963, had decided to break publicly with the FALN [Fuerzas Armados de _ Liberacién Nacional] because they considered the tactic of guerrilla struggle to be "erroneous and harmful." Borba was seeking to prove that there is growing opposition among revolutionary Marxists in
Latin America to armed struggle as the necessary road to power. The necessity of armed struggle was the central theme at the Tricontinental Conference.
In a long statement dated February 12, Héctor Marcano Coello, the representative in Cuba of the Communist party of Venezuela, seeks to refute Borba's affirmation. The statement appears in the February 20 issue of the weekly Granma, official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Cuba.
Marcano sees the motivation for Borba's attack in the close relation of the Yugoslavs to the official leaders of the Venezuelan Labor Federation and in their efforts to woo the Betancourt and Leoni regimes. He scores "their cynical answers in response to our calls for solidarity with our prisoners, denying their identity as political prisoners, and equating them with murderers and thieves."
Marcano skirts the question of the position of the imprisoned leaders of the Communist party, stating that "It is certain that nine members of the Political Bureau of the Venezuelan Communist Party (Jests Faria, Gustavo Machado, Pompeyo M&rquez, Eduardo Machado, Guillermo “Garcia Ponce , Héctor Rodriguez Bauza, Eloy Torres and Teodoro Petkof ) have been in prison since 1963. Luis Emiro Arrieta died in prison in July 1965, and Alberto Lovera has ‘disappeared ' after having been detained, and was certainly murdered by Leoni's henchmen.
From this it is not clear what the position of the nine are on guerrilla struggle or if there are differences among them on the question. Marcano continues:
"But it is also absolutely certain that a huge majority of members of the Central Committee, elected at the Third Party Congress, is to be found in their fighting positions, contending with the diverse duties of the Venezuelan revolution. The leaders of the guerrilla detachments in the mountains are: Douglas Bravo, member of the Politburo, and commanding officer of the revolutionary front 'José Leonardo Chirinos' in Falcén; Gonzalo Cartafio (Tirso Pinto), commanding officer of the guerrilla front ‘Simon Bolivar' in Lara, Portuguesa, Barinas, and Trujillo states; Alfredo Maneiro, commanding officer of the guerrilla front 'Manuel Ponte Rodriguez,’ in Sucre and Monagas states; Argelia Laya, vice-president of the political military district 'Argimiro Galbadén'; Concepcidén Alcala; Elias Vaidez; and many others, who, in order to assure their security cannot be named.
"The underground movement has a political staff which handles emergencies, and a majority of the 80 members of our National Headquarters deals with problems of logistics, masses and solidarity. Similarly, very prominent leaders of our party, such as José Vicente Cabezas (Pablo), Liuben Petkof, Gregorio Lunar, Freddy Carquez, Baltasar Ojeda, Rosendo Paez, and dozens more whom we have not named, are to be found in positions of responsibility on the various fronts."
Besides actively participating in an extensive way in the
armed struggle, the Communist party of Venezuela is on record on the. subject. ; —
"In 1964, after Leoni's election and in spite of his maneuvres, encouraged by the conciliation and vacillation which had even penetrated through to some revolutionary sectors," declares Marcano, - ; referring in this oblique way to the internal dispute over: the ques: tion; "the Sixth Plenary of the Central Committee of the V.C.P..5:: [Venezuelan Communist party] ratified the necessity of armed struggle as a fundamental form of opposition, and demonstrated the necessity to oppose and seek the downfall of Ratl: Leoni inasmuch as he would be another lackey of the imperialists in’ the tradition of the Romulo Betancourt regime. 7
"In April of 1965, the Seventh Plenary of ‘the Central Committee of our Party unanimously approved a political tactic, designed. to unite the entire Venezuelan nation in the battle for the conquest of 'A GOVERNMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC PEACE AND AGAINST HUNGER,' which would avoid civil war in Venezuela: and unite its. people in the fight without. quarter against imperialism, and for National liberation. "
Reiterating the aim of, overthrowing "the | puppet Leoni," Marcano continues: :
"Let it be clear that the leaders of the Venezuelan Communist Party, the martyrs, the prisoners in the jails of Leoni and those who are fighting on the various fronts, have certainly not ‘decided to publicly break with the FALN' as Borba treacherously states, but have proposed to provide the whole revolutionary movement with an agile and combative tactic of action and struggle which will employ |. all methods of combat in the overthrow of Leoni, immediate enemy of the Venezuelan people and, at the same “ame , representative in this nation: of U.S. imperialism.
"the armed guerrilla struggle, supported by other methods of mass struggle, whether : legal or illegal,.armed or not, not only has possibilities of success in Venezuela but also its expansion and . transformation into a mass struggle of all the people is the indispensable premise to our liberation. It is possible that it will be a hard struggle, more or less prolonged, that it will demand sacrifices and blood... “Our ' struggle: is inevitable; victory will also be inevitable.
"Tn a statement: contained ina tiessage in answer to a group of personalities who are propounding the pacification of the country’ through the abandonment of the armed struggle on the part of the revolutionaries, the Political Bureau of the Venezuelan. Communist Party recently stated: ‘Let them not.expect us.to surrender. The peace of vanquishers and vanquished, persecuted and pursuers which the Betancourt style militarists desire, will not be possible. If circum- : stances compel us'to shed all’our blood in the struggle, we shall... _know how to do honor to our revolutionary duty. This is not an idle. boast; you are well acquainted with our determination to fight and our unlimited capacity for sacrifice. There will not be real peace in our country until ‘our right to defend the sovereignty of. Venezuela
against foreign intervention is recognized. We have made this solemn pledge to the martyrs of our Revolution, to Luis Emiro Arrieta, and to Argimiro Gabaldén, especially, and we will faithfully fulfill it.
AND SO