People's Vanguard Party (Costa Rica)

The People's Vanguard Party, or Popular Vanguard Party (Spanish: Partido Vanguardia Popular) is a communist party in Costa Rica. PVP was founded in 1931 as the Workers and Farmers Party, but was soon renamed to the Communist Party of Costa Rica (Partido Comunista de Costa Rica).

People's Vanguard Party
Partido Vanguardia Popular
PresidentTrino Barrantes Araya
General SecretaryHumberto Vargas Carbonell
Founded16 June 1931 (as the Workers and Farmers Party)
HeadquartersDesamparados, Calle Fallas, Ciudadela Cucubres, de la plaza de deportes 50 metros sur, casa Nº 11
Ideology
Political positionFar-left
International affiliationIMCWP[1]
Legislative Assembly
0 / 57
Party flag
Website
Periódico Libertad

From 1931 to 1947, the party published Trabajo as a communist newspaper.[2] The PVP's current publication is El Popular.

History edit

In 1943, the party was renamed as PVP, in order to facilitate its alliance with the Catholic Church and the government, whose reformist policies the party supported.[3]

In 1949, the party was banned. Its militants began working under the name 'Partido Acción Socialista Obrera'.[4]

In the mid-1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 300.[5]

In 1970, the party again could contest elections.[4][verification needed]

In 1984, a severe internal crisis appeared in the party. At the 14th party congress, two of the party MPs, Arnoldo Ferreto Segura and Humberto Vargas Carbonell took over the party leadership and deposed Mora (who had led the party since 1934). Mora's followers continued to use the name PVP, thus there were two parties with the same name. In 1984 Mora's party took the name Costa Rican People's Party.[4]

On April 29, 2012, VP held a constitutive assembly for the electoral registration that would allow them to participate as a national party in the 2014 elections, which finally did not happen. At the meeting, María Isabel Fallas was elected president of the provisional executive committee. Subsequently, Trino Barrantes Araya would assume that position. In the XVI International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, from November 13 to 15, 2014, the Partido Vanguardia Popular was represented by Luis Salas Sarkis and Sonia Zamora.[6][7]

Electoral performance edit

Presidential edit

Election Leader First round Coalition
Votes % Position Result
1936 Manuel Mora Valverde 4,594 5.3% 3/3 Lost -
1940 Manuel Mora Valverde 10,825 9.8%   2/3 Lost -
1944 Teodoro Picado Michalski 52,830 75.1%   1/2 Won Victory Bloc
1948 Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia 44,438 44.7%   2/2 Lost Victory Bloc
1953 Banned
1958
1958
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978 Rodrigo Gutiérrez Sáenz 22,740 2.7% 3/8 Lost United People
1982 Rodrigo Gutiérrez Sáenz 32,186 3.3%   4/6 Lost United People
1986 Rodrigo Gutiérrez Sáenz 9,099 0.8%   3/6 Lost Peoples' Alliance
1990 Víctor Daniel Camacho Monge 9,217 0.7% 3/7 Lost United People
1994 Did not participate
1998 Norma Vargas Duarte 3,075 0.2%   10/12 Lost United People
2002 Walter Coto Molina 3,970 0.2%   8/13 Lost Change 2000
2006 Humberto Vargas Carbonell 2,291 0.1%   13/14 Lost United Left
2010 Did not participate
2014

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Communist and Workers' Parties". SolidNet. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  2. ^ La Hoz y el Machete. San Jose, Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia. 1986. p. 416. ISBN 978-9977-64-239-0. Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  3. ^ Aguilar Hernández, Marielos. Costa Rica en el siglo XX: Luchas sociales y conquistas laborales. San José: Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica, 2001. p. 22
  4. ^ a b c Rouquié, Alain/Arnaud, Hélène. Les Forces politiques en Amérique centrale. KARTHALA Editions, 1991. p. 39-40
  5. ^ Benjamin, Roger W.; Kautsky, John H.. Communism and Economic Development, in The American Political Science Review, Vol. 62, No. 1. (Mar. 1968), pp. 122.
  6. ^ "Copia archivada". Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  7. ^ "Copia archivada". Archived from the original on 20 April 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.

External links edit