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Doctrine and Dilemmas of the Latin American “New Left”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

John D. Martz
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Extract

In a broadcast from Havana on October 15, 1967, Cuba's líder máximo told his audience, “Who could deny the significance to the revolutionary movement of the blow of Che's death? It is a fierce blow, a very hard one.” One week earlier the near-legendary ideologue of the Cuban Revolution had been captured and shot by Bolivian authorities in a tiny Andean village named Higueras. Troops had also taken into custody the French Marxist Régis Debray, who had gained attention with his interpretation of the Cuban revolution before joining the Guevara-led band of rebels in Bolivia.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , January 1970 , pp. 171 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1970

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References

1 Mallin, Jay, “‘Che’ Guevara: Some Documentary Puzzles at the End of a Long Journey,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, X (January 1968), 84 Google Scholar.

2 For a fuller discussion of Latin American ideological writings and their effect, see Martz, John D., “Characteristics of Latin American Political Thought,” Journal of Inter-American Studies, VIII (January 1966), 54–74 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A recent essay by Frank Bonilla, however, has maintained that the cultural elite, although politically radical, is socially conservative; moreover, its impact is seen as limited. See Bonilla's, “Cultural Elites” in Lipset, Seymour Martin and Solari, Aldo, eds., Elites in Latin America (New York 1967). 233–56Google Scholar.

3 Students of Latin American thought have generally neglected the effect of European anarchism in the region. For recent recognition of its importance, however, see the relevant passages in Alba, Víctor, Politics and the Labor Movement in Latin America (Stanford 1968)Google Scholar; also Miguel Jorrin and John D. Martz, Latin American Political Thought and Ideology (forthcoming).

4 The standard treatments are Alexander, Robert J., Communism in Latin America, 2d printing (New Brunswick 1960)Google Scholar, and Poppino, Rollie, International Communism in Latin America: A History of the Movement, 1917–1963 (New York 1964)Google Scholar. Also see the excellent Introduction by Luis E. Aguilar in his edited volume, Marxism in Latin America (New York 1968), 3–59 Google Scholar.

5 Even in English, the literature on the Cuban Revolution is extensive. A brief sampling of the more authoritative works would include Draper, Theodore, Castro's Revolution; Myths and Realities (New York 1962 Google Scholar); Draper's, Castroism; Theory and Practice (New York 1965)Google Scholar; Goldenberg, Boris. The Cuban Revolution and, Latin America (New York 1965)Google Scholar; Suárez, Andrés, Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1965 (New York and Cambridge, 1967)Google Scholar; and Seers, Dudley, ed., Cuba: The Economic and Social Revolution (Chapel Hill 1964)Google Scholar.

Less objective but provocative interpretations include Huberman, Leo and Sweezy, Paul M., Cuba, Anatomy of a Revolution (New York 1960)Google Scholar; Matthews, Herbert L., The Cuban Story (New York 1961)Google Scholar; and Mills, C. Wright, Listen, Yankee! (New York 1960)Google Scholar.

6 An examination of Castro's statements and speeches amply supports this contention. For major collections emphasizing his pre-1959 declarations, two useful sources are Castro, Fidel, Pensamiento politico, economico y social de Fidel Castro (Habana 1959)Google Scholar, and Selser, Gregorio, ed., La revolucion cubana: escritos y discursos (Buenos Aires 1960)Google Scholar.

7 In 1961, the Brazilian Communists divided into bitterly antagonistic groups supporting respectively the Cuban and Soviet doctrinal positions. There were similar developments in Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru, while the Chilean Frente de Accion Popular (FRAP), an alliance of socialists and Communists, was rent with fissions that later worsened after the formation of militant pro-Chinese Marxist organizations.

8 Gerassi, John, “Introduction,” in his edited Venceremosl; The Speeches and Writings of Che Guevara (New York 1968), 22 Google Scholar.

9 Ernesto, “Che” Guevara, “Cuba, excepción histórica vanguardia en la lucha anti-colonialista,” Verde Olivo, April 9, 1961, 26 Google Scholar.

10 Guevara in Cuba socialista, III (September 1963), as reproduced in Gerassi, 269.

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12 Guevara in Cuba socialista, from Gerassi, 275.

13 Quoted in Mallin, 76.

14 Guevara, , La Guerra de Guerrillas (La Habana 1960)Google Scholar. Considerable attention was devoted to organizational, logistical, and similar military problems; space limitations restrict this discussion to doctrinal matters.

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16 Ibid., 71–73.

17 Ibid., 35.

18 For a more lengthy discussion see Gerassi, 266–80.

19 Draper, Castroism; Theory and Practice, 67.

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23 Guevara, “W e Are Practical Revolutionaries,” in Landa u an d Gerassi, 50.

24 Guevara, “Cuba, excepción histórica,” 22.

25 Ibid., 23.

26 Ibid., 28.

27 Gil, Federico G., “Antecedents of the Cuban Revolution,” The Centennial Review, VI (Summer 1962), 387 Google Scholar.

28 Guevara, “Man an d Socialist in Cuba,” letter to Carlos Quijano, in Gerassi, 398.

29 Ibid., 392.

30 Guevara, , Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, tr. by Ortiz, Victoria (New York 1968), 285 Google Scholar.

31 Fidel Castro, “In tribute to Che, “ ibid., 23.

32 A student of Louis Aldiusser wh o ha d first visited Havan a in 1961, Debray's work was published in French in 1966, and Cuba printed a 200,000-copy Spanish edition in January of 1967. For die English, see Debray, Régis, Revolution in the Revolution? Armed Struggle and Political Struggle, tr. by Ortiz, Bobbye (New York 1967)Google Scholar. A recent collection of essays is found in Huberman, Leo and Sweezy, Paul M. (eds.), Régis Debray and the Latin American Revolution (New York 1968)Google Scholar.

33 Ibid., 101.

34 Ibid., 29.

35 Ibid., 31.

36 Ibid., 36.

37 This admission was made in Castro's important speech on December 1, 1961. Somewhat varying versions of the “History Will Absolve Me” statement have appeared in the various collections published in Havana. For one of die first accounts of the trial itself and lengthy excerpts of the speech in English, see Dubois, Jules, Fidel Castro; Rebel-Liberator or Dictator? (Indianapolis 1959), 42–83 Google Scholar.

38 Aguilar, Luis E., “Régis Debray: Where Logic Failed,” The Reporter, XXXVII (December 28, 1967), 31–32 Google Scholar.

39 Debray, 126.

40 A brilliantly polemical economist who was in 1958 a leader of the left wing of Venezuela's then dominant Acción Democratica (AD), Rangel broke away to organize the pro-fidelista Movimiento de la Izquierd a Revolucionaria (MIR ) and espoused Cuban-style violent revolution. He later withdrew from the MIR to join a minor party of the non-Marxist left, also repudiating Castro on the grounds of violations of human rights in Cuba. For a sympathetic analysis of the MIR, see Harding, Timothy F. and Landau, Saul, “Terrorism, Guerrilla Warfare and the Democratic Left in Venezuela,” Studies on the Left, IV (Fall 1964), 118–28Google Scholar.

41 Rangel, Domingo Alberto, Una teoría para la revolutión democr´tica (Caracas 1958)Google Scholar.

42 Rangel, , Venezuela: país ocupado (Caracas 1960)Google Scholar. In a later work that followed his repudiation of revolutionary violence, his views became less ideologically precise. For this statement, see Rangel, , La revolutión de las fantasías (Caracas 1966)Google Scholar.

43 Married to the daughter of the martyred Liberal caudillo of the 1940's, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, he founded with his wife the radical Frente Unido de Acción Revolucionaria (FUAR) and expressed strong sympathy with the Castro regime.

44 Valencia, Luis Emiro, El nuevo socialismo y Antonio García (Bogotá 1955)Google Scholar.

45 Valencia, , Realidad y perspectivas de la revolutión cubana (Habana 1961)Google Scholar.

46 de la Puente Uceda, Luis F., “The Peruvian Revolution,” Monthly Review, XVII 25–26 Google Scholar.

47 Ibid., 28.

48 Díez, Alvaro Mendoza, La revolución de los profesionales e intelectuales en Latinoamerica (México 1962), 160 Google Scholar.

49 Ibid., 163.

50 Fernández, Alfredo and Zanetti, Oscar, “Dilemma of Leadership: The Guerrilla,” in Aguilar, Luis E., ed., Marxism in Latin America, 226 Google Scholar.

51 1Codovilla, Victorio, “The Ideas of Marxism-Leninism in Latin America,” World Marxist Review, VII (August 1964), 47 Google Scholar.

52 Alba, Orso, “Panama in the Fight for National Sovereignty,” World Marxist Review, VII (April 1964), 15–21 Google Scholar.

53 Arismendi, Rodney, “Some Aspects of the Revolutionary Process in Latin America,” World Marxist Review, VII (October 1964), 16 Google Scholar.

54 For a detailed account that stresses the ideological and political divisions on the Chilean left, consult Halperin, Ernst, Nationalism and Communism in Chile (Cambridge 1965), especially 42–178 Google Scholar.

55 A self-criticism by the Brazilian communists appears in Aguilar, ed., Marxism in Latin America, 250–56.

56 Borges, Alfredo Guerra, “The Experience of Guatemala: Some Problems of the Revolutionary Struggle Today,” World Marxist Review, VII (June 1964), 12–18 Google Scholar.

57 del Prado, Jorge, “Mass Struggle—The Key to Victory,” World Marxist Review, VII (May 1964), 11–18 Google Scholar.

58 Ramos, Jorge Abelardo, “Los peligros del empiricismo en la revolución latinoamericano,” in La lucha por un partido revolucionario (Buenos Aires 1964), 93 Google Scholar.

59 Ibid., 109.

60 Fortuny, José Manuel, “Has the Revolution Become More Difficult in Latin America?” World Marxist Review, VIII (August 1965), 40 Google Scholar.

61 Joint Declaration of the Communist Parties of Colombia and Venezuela, “Dilemma of Leadership: The Communist Party,” in Aguilar, 227–29.

62 Comite Central del Partido Comunista Venezolano, “Respuesta del Partido Comunista a Fidel Castro,” El National (Caracas), March 17, 1967, D-9.

63 Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional, “Our Errors,” Studies on the Left, IV (Fall 1964), 130–31Google Scholar.

64 An electoral study that also examines this urban violence is Martz, John D., The Venezuelan Elections of December 1, 1963 (Washington 1964)Google Scholar.

65 An official account of these events is contained in de Guerra, Ministerio, Las guerrillas en el Perú y su represión (Lima 1966)Google Scholar.

66 An interesting treatment is that of Gall, Norman, “The Legacy of Che Guevara,” Commentary, XLIV (December 1967), 31–44 Google Scholar.

67 Guevara, , The Diary of Che Guevara; Bolivia: November 7, 1966-October 7, 1967, edited by Sheer, Robert and with an introduction by Fidel Castro (New York 1968), 165 Google Scholar.

68 Ibid., 186.

69 Mallin, 83.

70 Aguilar, “Régis Debray: Where Logic Failed,” 32. A useful compendium including writings of the New Left that appeared after this article was in final form is Horowitz, Irving Louis, de Castro, Josué, and Gerassi, John, eds., Latin American Radicalism; A Documentary Report on Left and Nationalist Movements (New York 1969)Google Scholar.

71 Castro, , “El Deber de los Marxistas-Leninistas,” El Mundo (Havana), April 20, 1965, 6 Google Scholar.

72 Aguilar, “Régis Debray: Where Logic Failed,” 32