Gustavo Machado Morales
| Gustavo Machado | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| President of the Communist Party of Venezuela | |
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In office 1974–1983 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
19 July 1898 Caracas, Venezuela |
| Died | 17 July 1983 (aged 84) Caracas |
| Political party | Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) |
| Spouse(s) | María Lucas Elsa Vera |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Gustavo Machado Morales (19 July 1898 – 17 July 1983) was a Venezuelan politician and journalist, editor of the Communist Party of Venezuela's newspaper from 1948 to 1983 (with interruptions for exile and imprisonment) and President of the party from 1971 to 1983. As a leading Communist, he spent a substantial part of his life in exile or in prison. He was a founder member of the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party in February 1927, a forerunner of the Communist Party of Venezuela (founded in 1931). He was a member of the Generation of 1928 - activists opposing the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. During the 1945-8 democratic period he was a member of the Constituent Assembly and a candidate in the 1947 presidential election for the Communist Party. He was elected to the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies four times, serving there for fifteen years.
Machado was born into a wealthy Venezuelan family, the son of Carlos Machado and María Morales. At age 16 he participated in the National Assembly of Students, and organised the first demonstration against the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez. Arrested in May 1914, he spent ten months in prison before being released. He went on to study law from 1916 to 1919 at the Central University of Venezuela, when he went into exile following his involvement in the unsuccessful conspiracy of Luis Rafael Pimentel.
He studied law at Harvard University and at La Sorbonne, where he met his wife, graduating from the Sorbonne in 1924. As a legal representative of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation he moved to Havana, where he observed student unrest with interest, and in 1925 participated in the founding of the original Cuban Communist Party (later renamed Popular Socialist Party). From 1926 to 1929 he lived in Mexico. A member of the French Communist Party, in Mexico he was a co-founder in exile of the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party in February 1927. He participated in Rafael Simón Urbina's June 1929 taking of Fort Amsterdam in Curaçao, in another attempt to overthrow Gómez. This movement involved the kidnapping of the governor of Curaçao, Leonardus Albert Fruytier, by 250 men with the support of communists as Miguel Otero Silva, José Tomás Jiménez, and Guillermo Prince Lara. They plundered weapons, ammunition and the treasury of the island and hauled the governor Fruytier off to Venezuelan coasts on the stolen American ship Maracaibo. The revolutionaries landing at La Vela de Coro but were defeated by Gómez forces, and the raid ended in failure. After this failed raid Machado went into exile in Colombia with Urbina and others revolutionaries. On his return to Venezuela in 1935 he was imprisoned again, but was released on 14 February 1936 following popular pressure. Following a public declaration of communism in March 1936 he was expelled from Venezuela on 13 March 1937, returning to exile in Mexico.
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