In February 1979, the EPL rejected a government appeal to all guerrilla groups to cease fighting. It was also reported to have engaged in several “operations” during 1979, although it was said that “The EPL’s leadership was further weakened in 1979.”[311]
The EPL was still active, at least to some degree, in 1988. Although it had signed an agreement to cease activities in 1984, it had repudiated that accord after several of its people had been killed.[312] We have no later information on the guerrilla efforts of the PCC-ML.
The MOIR
Another Colombian organization widely considered to be Maoist in orientation was the Independent Revolutionary Workers’ Movement (Movimiento Obrero Independiente Revolucionaro; MOIR). It had some small influence in the Confederación Sindical Trabajadores de Colombia (CSTC), the trade union group controlled by the pro-Moscow Communist Party. Its faction in that organization was reported as being split over tactics to be pursued at the CSTC 2nd Congress in 1975.[313] In the following year it was “active in supporting the formation of an independent labor movement from the PCC domination.”[314]
Daniel Premo wrote in 1979 that MOIR"aspires to become the first mass-based Maoist party in Latin America, with leadership and organization independent from those of the PCC-ML.” Its Secretary-General was Franciso Mosquera.[315]
There is no indication that the MOIR sought to engage in any significant guerrilla activity. Furthermore, unlike the PCC-ML, it participated in elections more or less regularly. It claimed that such participation was “an additional means to develop the revolutionary consciousness of the masses.”
Founded in 1971, the MOIR first participated in elections in a coalition with a number of other small far Left groups in the parliamentary election of 1972. The coalition got less than 0.5 percent of the total vote.[316] The MOIR continued its electoral action in 1974, joining with the pro-Moscow party and some other groups in the presidential election of that year. That coalition won 2.6 percent of the total vote.[317] In 1976, it ran its own slate of candidates, with results that we do not know.[318] In the following year, it was reported as supporting “the new coalition of the revolutionary left” for electoral purposes.[319]
In 1988, Daniel Premo reported that the MOIR"has no military branch and has been unable to strengthen its political position in recent years.” The MOIR Secretary-General was still Francisco Mosquera.[320]
Conclusion
The party that for more than a decade had the “Chinese franchise” in Colombia, the Partido Comunista de Colombia-Marxista-Leninista, was one of the few such organizations in Latin America to actually undertake guerrilla warfare. It did so with very modest results. The Ejercito Popular de Liberación was one of the smaller of the numerous guerrilla groups operating in Colombia in the late 1960s and thereafter.
The PCC-ML concentrated on its guerrilla activities. Its influence in civil society was very limited, although in the early years it had some modest influence in organized labor, and rather more substantial importance in student organizations.
By the late 1970s, the PCC-ML was an exceedingly minor element in the Colombian far Left. After Mao’s death it joined forces with the Albanians, against the Chinese. Its place as the pro-Chinese party of Colombia was taken by the Marxist-Leninist League of Colombia. Another faction, the Grupo Comunista Revolucionario, became a member of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, formed by the orthodox Maoist followers of the Gang of Four.
The only other organization that conceived of itself as being loyal to Maoist teaching, the Independent Revolutionary Workers Movement (MOIR), did not engage in guerrilla activities, but concentrated on trying to gain a foothold in the segment of the labor movement controlled by the pro-Moscow Communists, and in electoral activity. Its influence in the general political Left of Colombia was perhaps modestly greater than that of the PCC-ML. The MOIR does not seem to have received any official recognition from the Chinese.
Maoism in the Dominican Republic
Between 1930 and 1961, the Dominican Republic suffered from the most absolute and tyrannical dictatorship in Latin America, that of Generalissimo Rafael Leónidas Trujillo. After the murder of Trujillo in 1961, President Joaquín Balaguer, the last man chosen by Trujillo to be his puppet president, began the process of dismantling the dictatorship. In the first few months, three principal parties emerged: the Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), headed by Juan Bosch, which gained wide support among urban workers, peasants and some professional people; the National Civic Union (UCN), principal spokesman for the economically better-off part of the population; and the 14th of June Movement, which was the major spokesman for the more radically inclined, particularly among the youth, and later one source of Dominican Maoism.
Balaguer was overthrown by a military coup in January 1962, and the succeeding Council of State called elections at the end of the year. They were won by the PRD, and Bosch was elected President. However, his regime lasted only seven months, and he was overthrown by another military coup. A so-called “Triumvirate” regime, headed by a businessman, Donald Reid Cabral, ruled until April 1965, when a new uprising took place, particularly in the capital, headed by Colonel Francisco Caamaño; its avowed purpose was the return of Bosch to the presidency. However, before it could be successful, President Lyndon Johnson, fearful of “another Cuba” and the alleged Communist connections of those supporting Caamaño, sent in U.S. troops.
Finally, in 1966 there were elections once again, with the principal candidates being ex-Presidents Juan Bosch and Joaquín Balaguer, who had organized the so-called Reformist Party. The latter won, in large part because people feared that the United States would not recognize a new victory of Bosch and the PRD. Balaguer was reelected in 1970 and 1974. In 1978, the PRD won at last, with the candidacy of Antonio Guzmán.
It was against this political background, and a continuing economic crisis that saw a large part of the population in severe if not dire poverty, that Communism developed in the Dominican Republic. There were two pro-Moscow parties, the Dominican Communist Party, and a splinter of the PCD, the Popular Socialist Party (PSP). A variety of Maoist groups emerged, none of them from the pro-Moscow parties.
The evolution of Maoism in the Dominican Republic was complicated not only by the bitter quarrels among the various Maoist groups but also by the competing attraction of Castroism. To some degree, this was a phenomenon in many Latin American countries, but it was particularly important in the Dominican Republic.
We shall look at each of the Maoist parties. These included principally the Dominican Popular Movement (MPD), the Communist Party of the Dominican Republic (PACOREDO), and the 14th of June Movement and its offshoots.
313
Daniel Premo, in
314
Daniel Premo, in
317
Daniel Premo, in