Communist Party of Venezuela
Template:Infobox Venezuelan Political Party
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The Communist Party of Venezuela (in Spanish: Partido Comunista de Venezuela, PCV) is a communist party in Venezuela. Until the 1990s, it was the main far-left group in Venezuela. The PCV was founded in 1931 as clandestine organization during the military dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. It was initially led by Juan Bautista Fuenmayor and became the Venezuelan affiliate of the Communist International.
The PCV remained an illegal organization until 1945. It was again outlawed during the second presidency of Rómulo Betancourt in the 1960s. In the 1960s, inspired by Che Guevara, it engaged in guerrilla warfare against the government. Those in the PCV who did not support guerrilla tactics left the party in 1971 to form Movement toward Socialism (MAS). The Communist fighters were later given a general amnesty by President Rafael Caldera in the 1970s.
In the following years, the PCV received few votes in national elections. During an economic crisis in the early 1990s, Caldera, the former president who had granted amnesty to the PCV fighters, left the conservative Christian Social Party and formed a new populist party, Convergence. The PCV supported Caldera's successful presidential campaign in 1993.
In elections of 1998, the PCV backed Hugo Chávez and his Fifth Republic Movement. Following Cz's election as president, the Communist Party has continued to support him and his "socialism for the 21st century."
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).