The Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers ( es, Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores Centroamericanos, PRTC) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

Ideology

The group that founded the PRTC was inspired by Marxism-Leninism,

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quot ...

and the experiences of the

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese national liberation struggle. The party was accused of

Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

by other revolutionary groups, an accusation that the party rejected.

History

The PRTC was founded in 1975, by a sector that had left the ERP-RN after the 1972 elections. Clandestine pre-congress meetings for the founding of PRTC were held in Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador in 1975. Provisional 'Zonal Leaderships' were formed in these countries. The party also formed cells in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. Contacts were established with activists in

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

, Guatemala,

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. In April 1975 the Liberation League was founded as a multisectoral mass front, which was to become a front organization for the party. In December 1975 the plenary session of the party congress was opened with delegates from around Central America. The PRTC was formally founded in San José on January 25, 1976. Fabio Castillo Figueroa became the General Secretary of the party. The party adopted a democratic centralism as its organizational principle. During the period of 1976-1978, the party built up organizational structures throughout Central America with the exception of Nicaragua. The leadership was based in Costa Rica. In Guatemala, several of the leaders of the party would later join

ORPA The Organization of People in Arms or ORPA ( es, Organización del Pueblo en Armas) was a Guatemalan guerrilla organization active in Guatemala during the Guatemalan Civil War. A split-off from the FAR of the 1960s, ORPA was critical of earlier ...

. In El Salvador, the Zonal Leadership was made up of Mario López (a.k.a. Comandante Venancio, Zonal Secretary), Manuel Federico Castillo, Luis Díaz, Humberto Mendoza, Nidia Díaz and Joaquín Morales Chávez. The second party congress of PRTC was held in

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa (, , ), formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( es, Tegucigalpa, Municipio del Distrito Central or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz'', is the capital and largest city ...

in April 1979. The congress elected Dr. José María Reyes Mata as the new General Secretary of the party. The congress also formed a Central American Political Commission as a new party leadership. The Commission had one member from each Central American country. In 1979, the party set up a series of new mass organizations in El Salvador. The peasant sector of the Liberation League was converted into a separate organization, Brigadas de Trabajadores del Campo (BTC). Other new mass organizations were Brigadas Revolucionarias de Estudiantes de Secundaria and Comités de Base Obrera. The People’s Liberation Movement (MLP) was formed as an umbrella body of the mass organizations of the party. In January 1980 MLP was one of the organizations that founded the

Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Coordinadora Revolucionaria de Masas (Revolutionary Mass Coordination) was a coordination of revolutionary mass organizations in El Salvador formed on January 11, 1980. The major action in its history was a Januar ...

, an alliance which would later found the

Revolutionary Democratic Front The Revolutionary Democratic Front ( es, Frente Democrático Revolucionario, FDR) was a coalition of mass organizations in El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Sal ...

in April 1980. In 1979, the party also launched an armed wing, Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Popular. In August 1980 the main leader of PRTC in El Salvador, Luis Díaz, 'disappeared'. In October 1980 a PRTC Central Committee meeting was held in

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicar ...

. The meeting dissolved the Central American structures of the party, converting the national party branches into separate parties. As a continuation of the unified PRTC, the meeting set up a Conference of Revolutionary Parties in Central America as a coordinating body of the individual PRTC. This shift was necessary for the Salvadoran branch of PRTC to be able to join the FMLN. The Salvadoran PRTC became one of the members of the FMLN guerrilla movement on December 5, 1980. The Honduran PRTC continued armed struggle of its own.

References

{{Authority control 1975 establishments in North America 1980 disestablishments in North America Communist parties in Costa Rica Communist parties in El Salvador Communist parties in Guatemala Communist parties in Honduras Communist parties in Nicaragua Communist parties in Panama Defunct political parties in Belize Defunct political parties in Costa Rica Defunct political parties in El Salvador Defunct political parties in Guatemala Defunct political parties in Honduras Defunct political parties in Nicaragua Defunct political parties in Panama Far-left political parties History of Central America Marxist parties Political parties disestablished in 1980 Political parties established in 1975 Salvadoran Civil War Transnational political parties Paramilitary organizations based in Honduras