VENEZUELAN CP LEADER OUTLINES PARTY'S TURN TO "PEACEFUL ROAD"
According to a top official of the Venezuelan Communist party, who granted an interview to the Caracas daily El Nacional (published in the April 21 edition) provided his: identity was not revealed, the two main decisions of the Eighth Plenum of the party's Central Committee, held a few days before the interview, were: :
(1) To immediately give up the armed struggle;
(2) To enter the next elections behind a candidate of "national unifica-
tion" against the coalition regime of
Accién Democrética and COPEI (the Social
Christians).
The plenum also expelled the guer-
rilla leader Douglas Bravo from the party
and named Pompeyo M4rquez as the party's
new general secretary so long as the pre-
viously elected general secretary, Jests
Faria, remains in exile.
Extracts from the interview, which
was conducted by Germ4n Carias S., follow
(translated by World Outlook):
x * *
"I am able to tell you," said the Communist leader, "that the Eighth Plenum held a few days ago...was attended by 54 out of a total of 76 members. The gathering constituted, in our opinion, a great success, enabling our party to definitively fix its position in relation to the present situation in the country, and, fundamentally, in relation to the coming electoral process. The most important decisions were voted unanimously. A new Political Bureau was elected and the political resolution was affirmed, determining the line to be adopted on a national scale."
"What is this line?"
The Communist leader outlined it, analyzing the conclusions of the Plenum, stating that the renunciation of armed struggle was one of the most important measures adopted by the eighth Communist gathering.
"The Eighth Plenum," declared the Communist leader, "voted to give up the armed struggle, unanimously condemned terrorism, voted to engage in the mass struggle and to participate actively in the next electoral process. Likewise it agreed to expel Douglas Bravo, resolving that the three comrades formerly in parliament who escaped a short time ago from the prison at the San Carlos fortress should be given significant posts in the new Political Bureau of the Central Conmittee. The former Senator Pompeyo M4rquez, one of those who escaped, was designated general secretary in the absence of Jestis Faria."
According to this information, the new Political Bureau of the Central Conmittee, by decision of the Eighth Plenun, is made up of Pompeyo MArquez, Guillermo Garcia Ponce and Teodoro Petkoff, the three who escaped from San Carlos...plus Pedro Ortega Diaz, a lawyer; Eduardo Gallegos Mancera, a doctor; Alonso Ojeda Olaechea, an agriculturist; and Germ4n Lairet, a lawyer.
* * *
"What were the grounds for expelling Douglas Bravo?"
The Communist leader said that the analysis of the Eighth Plenum had taken into account mainly the rebellious attitude of Douglas Bravo in continuing to foment guerrillas in opposition to the thesis of a democratic peace agreed upon by the Seventh Plenum and against which he later came out in opposition, despite having voted for it at that gathering. The conduct of Bravo, who had been suspended in the past year by the Political Bureau was weighed by the Eighth Plenum and it was finally decided unanimously to expel lrim.
"“What-is the gist of the political resolution?"
The Communist leader said that the Eighth Plenum decided, also unanimously, that the party should participate actively in the next electoral process...engaging in the mass struggle.
"The Plenum voted for the general line," said the leader of the CP, “of reincorporating all its cadres in the legal struggle...Likewise it voted to participate in the next electoral contest whenever the party considers it necessary to put together a broad front to block Accién Democrética from continuing in office and block a victory for Caldera. In line with this, it was decided to work tirelessly for the national unification of the left under the slogan 'Neither continuism nor Caldera. For a change!'"
* * *
"The immediate task of the Commu~ nists," observed the leading spokesman, "is to work to unite the opposition against Accién Democr&tica and Caldera. The Eighth Plenum decided on this unanimously. Giving up armed struggle will open up channels for reincorporating all our cadres in legal activities with a single basic objective: the participation of the Communist party in the next presidential elections. In the next days the Political Bureau will determine how the party is to participate in the electoral contest."
In the judgment of political observers, the decisions and conclusions of the underground Eighth Plenum of the Communist party, constitute an explicit orientation against armed struggle, in open opposition to the insurrectional line maintained in Paris and now supported in Berlin at the World Communist Congress by the former Senator Jestis Faria, whose prison sentence was commuted by the government and reduced to exile.
The displacement of Faria by Pompeyo M&rquez as general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party is the most palpable evidence that the Eighth Plenum voted against armed subversion, testifying at the same time to the definitive way in which the Venezuelan Communists have broken with Fidel Castro, the prime minister of Cuba, who, from Havana, has supported Douglas Bravo and his guerrilla activities in Venezuela.