Founder Alfonso Cano Headquarters Bogotá, Colombia | Founded 2000 | |
Preceded by Colombian Communist Party Paramilitary wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia Ideology Communism,
Marxism–Leninism,
Bolivarianism,
Left-wing Nationalism | ||
The Clandestine Colombian Communist Party (in Spanish: Partido Comunista Clandestino Colombiano) is an underground communist party in Colombia. It is politically linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which founded the party in 2000, although a de facto After FARC officially broke with the Colombian Communist Party (CCP), a separate FARC-based party structure came into de facto existence during most of the 1990s, until the PCCC was officially founded in 2000. The party's founder and leader was FARC's commander Guillermo León Sáenz, also known as "Alfonso Cano", until he was killed in action in 2011.
Contents
History
As a result of attempted peace negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government in 1985, FARC, in conjunction with the Colombian Communist Party, founded the Patriotic Union (UP) as a legal political party that would participate in electoral politics. Although the formation of the UP was a provision of the negotiations with the government, the party was violently repressed by right-wing paramilitary groups as well as Colombian drug lords. Whatever optimism FARC held regarding entrance into mainstream politics was slowly abandoned as the UP all but disintegrated in the late-1980s.
Because FARC wished to maintain a rigid guiding ideology towards their struggle, they informally maintained a party structure known as the Bolivarian Movement for a New Colombia in the 1990s. This new emphasis on the figure of Simon Bolivar would later be incorporated into the official ideology of the PCCC. After the end of the Cold War, FARC would not abandon their ideological devotion to Marxism-Leninism but they did complement it with the nationalist Bolivarian sentiment. The transformation of this movement into the founding of the PCCC was officially announced by FARC in 2000.
Ideology
In adherence with Leninism, FARC did not intend for the PCCC to run in "bourgeois" elections. Instead, the PCCC was to remain underground, serving as the vanguard party for the FARC guerrillas. As well as keeping the FARC rooted in Marxism-Leninism, the PCCC also seeks to appeal to other members of the working-class in hopes of building a revolutionary class consciousness in Colombia. The existence of an official ideological organ of FARC also helps FARC legitimize itself as a viable alternative to bourgeois democracy in the minds of the Colombian working class.
Results
As the PCCC does not participate in elections, it is difficult to evaluate the party's success in spreading its ideology as a revolutionary vanguard party. However, unlike the UP, the PCCC is under the direct control of FARC, and, given that FARC is again currently engaging in peace negotiations with the Colombian government, the future of the party remains highly uncertain.