The Communist Party of Bolivia ( es, Partido Comunista de Bolivia) is a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. It was founded in 1950 by Raúl Ruiz González and other former members of the

Revolutionary Left Party The Revolutionary Left Party ( es, Partido de la Izquierda Revolucionaria, PIR) was a communist party in Bolivia. It was founded by Dr. José Antonio Arze and other Bolivian intellectuals on 26 July 1940 during a left-wing congress held in Oru ...

(PIR). It remained small and did not hold its first national party congress until 1959. It soon entered the labor movement and was included in the leadership of the

Central Obrera Boliviana The Bolivian Workers' Center ( es, Central Obrera Boliviana, COB) is the chief trade union federation in Bolivia. It was founded in 1952 following the national revolution that brought the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement to power. The most imp ...

and the

FSTMB The Syndical Federation of Bolivian Mineworkers (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia''; FSTMB) is a trade union, labor union in Bolivia that represents miners. Bolivia's miners are commonly regarde ...

during the 1960s. However, it remained a minority force in most unions. The

Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...

further weakened the PCB. In 1964, Ruiz González and others broke away to form the pro-China Communist Party of Bolivia (Marxist–Leninist). At the time, the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 6,500. In 1966, the Cuban-based revolutionary

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, quoted ...

planned to initiate a

guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...

against

René Barrientos René Barrientos Ortuño (30 May 1919 – 27 April 1969) was a Bolivian military officer and politician who served as the 47th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively from 1964 to 1966 and from 1966 to 1969. During much of his first term, ...

, Bolivia's military dictator. The PCB initially pledged its support, but became suspicious of Guevara when he arrived. The party did not participate in Guevara's campaign. Instead, Guevara formed a separate organization, the National Liberation Army (''Ejército de Liberación Nacional''). When democracy was restored in Bolivia in the 1980s, the PCB remained a minor party. In 2003 it lost its designation as a recognized political party. The PCB publishes ''Unidad'' (Unity). As of 2019, Ignacio Mendoza served as the first secretary of the party.Agencia Cubana de Noticias.
Partido Comunista de Bolivia rechaza acciones de EE.UU. contra Cuba
'

General Secretaries

*Simón Reyes Rivera (1950–c. 1967) * Mario Monje Molina, nicknamed “Estanislao” (c. 1967–c. 1970) *

Jorge Kolle Cueto Jorge Kolle Cueto (April 20, 1930 – March 4, 2007, La Paz) was a Bolivian communist politician. Kolle was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Bolivia in 1950. He held the position of First Secretary of the party and edited the ...

(c. 1970–1981) *Marcos Domich Ruiz (1985–2003) *Ignacio Mendoza Pizarro (2003–2008)

References

1950 establishments in Bolivia Communist parties in Bolivia Foro de São Paulo International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties Political parties established in 1950 Political parties in Bolivia {{Bolivia-party-stub