Gustavo Machado Morales (19 July 1898 – 17 July 1983) was a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n politician and journalist, editor of the

Communist Party of Venezuela The Communist Party of Venezuela (, PCV) is a communist party in Venezuela. Founded in 1931, it is the oldest active political party in Venezuela, and was the country's main leftist party until it fractured into rival factions in 1971. The P ...

'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

(founded in 1931). He was a member of the Generation of 1928 - activists opposing the dictatorship of

Juan Vicente Gómez Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón (24 July 1857 – 17 December 1935) was a Venezuelan military general, politician and '' de facto'' ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He only officially served as president on three occasions d ...

. 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 The Chamber of Deputies () was the lower house of Venezuela's legislative under its 1961 constitution; the Venezuelan Senate was the upper house. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly ...

four times, serving there for fifteen years.

Life

Machado was born into a wealthy Venezuelan family, the son of Carlos Machado and María Morales. Lino Morán Beltrán, Lorena Velásquez y Vileana Meleán (2005)
Gustavo Machado y los orígenes del marxismo en Venezuela
''Revista de Filosofía'', v.23 n.49. University of Maracaibo. At age 16 he participated in the National Assembly of Students, and organised the first demonstration against the dictator

. 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 Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, when he went into exile following his involvement in the unsuccessful conspiracy of Luis Rafael Pimentel. Fundacion Jose Guillermo Carrillo, , Diccionario Histórico Biográfico Editado por la Fundación Polar Caracas, Venezuela Fort Amsterdam

Given his passion and athletic conditions, he founded with his brothers Gustavo and Roberto, "Los Samanes BBC" one of the baseball clubs that between 1914 and 1918 maintained a strong rivalry with the "BBC Independencia", which polarized Caracas fans at that time. He stood out as an out-fielder and fourth team bat as well as played football as left-back. He studied law at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Popular Socialist Party). From 1926 to 1929 he lived in Mexico. A member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

, in Mexico he was a co-founder in exile of the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party in February 1927. He participated in

Rafael Simón Urbina Rafael Simón Urbina López (1897-13 November 1950) was a Venezuelan rebel who fought against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. Biography Early battles Implicated in a 1919 conspiracy to overthrow President Gómez, he spent four years par ...

's June 1929 taking of

Fort Amsterdam Fort Amsterdam, (later, Fort George among other names) was a fortification on the southern tip of Manhattan Island at the confluence of the Hudson River, Hudson and East River, East rivers in what is now New York City. The fort and the island ...

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

, in another attempt to overthrow Gómez. venezuelatuya.com
Rafael Simón Urbina
/ref> This movement involved the kidnapping of the governor of Curaçao, , by 250 men with the support of communists as

Miguel Otero Silva Miguel Otero Silva (October 26, 1908 – August 28, 1985), was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. A figure of great relevance in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works related strictly to the socio-polit ...

, 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 La Vela de Coro is the port of Coro, Venezuela. Coro and its port form a conurbation, although Coro is in the municipality of Miranda and La Vela is in a separate municipality, Colina. The twin settlements were founded by the Spanish in the 16t ...

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. Machado returned to Venezuela again in 1944 and began distributing Mexican and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

films and explained plans of creating a Communist organization. Following the

1945 Venezuelan coup d'état The 1945 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 18 October 1945, when the president Isaías Medina Angarita was overthrown by a combination of a military rebellion and a popular movement led by Democratic Action. The Medina government discovered ...

, Machado was one of two Communists elected to the new Constituent Assembly in the 1946 election. He was a candidate in the 1947 presidential election for the Communist Party, receiving 3.3% of the vote, Nohlen, D (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II'', p555 and was elected to the

in the 1947 elections. In 1948 he founded the newspaper ''Tribuna Popular'', the daily of the Communist Party, and was its director until his death, with the exception of the periods 1951 to 1958 (due to exile) and 1963 to 1968 (due to imprisonment). After the

1948 Venezuelan coup d'état The 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 24 November 1948, when Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Luis Felipe Llovera Páez overthrew the elected president, Rómulo Gallegos, who had been elected in the 1947 Venezuelan ...

had brought to an end the three-year democratic period known as

El Trienio Adeco El Trienio Adeco was a three-year period in Venezuelan history, from 1945 to 1948, under the government of the popular party Democratic Action (Venezuela), Democratic Action (, its adherents ''adecos''). The party gained office via the 1945 Ven ...

he was imprisoned again in 1950, and expelled from the country in 1951. Following the restoration of democracy in 1958, Machado was elected to the

in the

1958 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1958. Africa * 1958 French Togoland parliamentary election * 1958 Nigerien Constituent Assembly election * 1958 South African general election * 1958 Southern Rhodesian general election * 1958 Sudanese ...

. On 30 September 1963, following the banning of the

by the government of

Rómulo Betancourt Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981; ), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was a Venezuelan politician who served as the president of Venezuela, from and again from Second presidency of Rómulo ...

, Machado was arrested. He was released in May 1968, and was again elected to the

in the 1968 elections and

1973 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1973. Africa * 1973 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1973 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1973 Ethiopian general election * 1973 Gabonese general election * 1973 Republic of the Congo con ...

. After the ''Unión Para Avanzar (UPA)'' was renamed

in 1970, he was elected president of the party in 1971, and remained its president until 1983. A biography, ''Gustavo Machado: un caudillo prestado al comunismo'' (by José Agustín Catalá and Domingo Alberto Rangel) was published in 2001 by Ediciones Centauro. Another by Manuel Felipe Sierra, (''Gustavo Machado'') was published by '' El Nacional'' in 2006. Another, ''Gustavo Machado de oligarca a comunista, 1914/1974'' by

José Carlos Mariátegui José Carlos Mariátegui La Chira (; June 14, 1894 – April 16, 1930) was a Peruvian writer, sociologist, historian, journalist, politician, and Marxist philosopher. A prolific author despite his early death, El Amauta (from Quechua: ham ...

''et al.'', was published by Ediciones Centauro in 1975. He received an honorary doctorate from the

University of the Andes (Venezuela) The University of the Andes (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Los Andes'', ULA) is the second-oldest university in Venezuela, whose main campus is located in the city of Mérida, Mérida, Mérida, Venezuela. ULA is the largest public ...

in 1981.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machado, Gustavo 1898 births 1983 deaths Venezuelan atheists Communist Party of Venezuela politicians Members of the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies Venezuelan prisoners and detainees Central University of Venezuela alumni University of Paris alumni Venezuelan politicians convicted of crimes 20th-century Venezuelan journalists Members of the Venezuelan Constituent Assembly of 1946 Candidates for President of Venezuela