The domination of the military-civilian guerrilla-Betancourtist clique in the political leadership of the country, the continuity plans of the reactionary AD leaders, the maintenance of the terrorist wave of repression, the constant violation of human rights and the U.S. pressure to increase Venezuela's dependence and colonial status-all these things force the PCV and the JC to increase their preparations in all fields in order to always be in a position to contribute to the popular and nationalist movement in the struggle for the complete operation of democracy, the defense of national sovereignty, and the independent development of Venezuela.

9. Characteristics of the present situation:

The present Venezuelan situation is characterized by the following fundamental facts:

(1) United States domination and penetration have increased, (words indistinct) strengthening of the domination of the groups drawn to the interests of U.S. imperialism and of the most reactionary sector of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie.

(2) The hegemony of the guerrilla-Betancourtist clique is being maintained, and it is today the principal political instrument of U.S. intervention and (? influence) in our country. Therefore, that clique is the principal enemy of our people at this moment.

(3) The conflict still exists between different ruling-class groups and cliques over control of the greatest amount of power in the Venezuelan Government and state. This conflict grows as the electoral process approaches, and it is expressed, among other things, by the anticontinuity movement, the pressures of guerrilla military groups for more reactionary solutions, and the struggles within the principal parties.

The guerrilla military groups are not-repeat-not discarding the possibility of a coup d'etat in view of the government's lack of mass support, the weakening of the AD as a popular party, and the pressure of certain economic sectors, which do not-repeat-not conceal their ambition to replace the AD with a more reactionary formula which would better safeguard their interests. All these elements contribute, in a certain way, to the stability of the government and the complexity of the political situation.

There is an increase of military and police repression against the popular masses throughout the country. Executions, tortures, "missing persons," and the imprisonment of hundreds of citizens are the order of the day. The most reactionary leaders in the government are awaiting the right circumstances for the imposition of fascist laws. The antiguerrilla cordons, the big police roundups and abuses in the neighborhoods, and the special summary trials, of which those of the former parliamentarians of the PCV, the MIR, and so forth, are distinguished as juridical monstrosities, are evidence of the ever-growing dominance of the military groups and the U.S. military mission in the orientation of the government.

(5) General political activities are beginning to develop under the sign of election preparations. This is an event of singular importance which has direct influence on the political groupings and regroupings. It is possible to create a correlation of forces favorable to the overthrow of the continuity of the reactionary AD leadership.

(6) The economic and social problems of the popular masses have worsened. Popular discontent against the government is growing. It is expressed, principally, in the demands for change, for an end to the hegemony of the reactionary AD leadership, and for the defeat of the guerrilla-Betancourtist policy.

(7) The weakening of the democratic movement in general is a negative influence, especially the weakening of the organized force of the nationalist and the leftist sectors, which is the result of the blows received and the errors, division, and dispersals in its ranks. There is a process of weakening in the ranks of the MIR, and an anticommunist and adventurer group has taken form within it. The MIR faction agrees politically with the splinter group. Moreover, the anarchic-terrorist group, the actions of which confuse and disorganize tht popular movement, serves the counter-revolutionary provocations and worsens the difficulties of the revolutionary sectors.

Erroneous sectarian and psuedo revolutionary concepts, which are causing so much harm by weakening the popular movement, have gone on to constitute the most dangerous of deviations, which threaten the immediate destiny of the Venezuelan revolution, exposing it to isolation and failure. The defeat of the erroneous ideas is indispensible in order to guarantee the development and victory of our party and the revolutionary movement.

Finally, at this moment the armed movement is not-repeat-not capable of playing a decisive role because of the deadlock being suffered by the guerrilla

fronts in the armed struggle in general, a situation made worse by the false political and operational concepts prevailing in the anarchic-adventurer and antiparty group.

(8) The political influence of the left, of our party, and of the JC is being maintained over broad popular sectors and their national goals. the persistence of a powerful student movement constitutes a permanent source of encouragement for the masses, as is the responsibility, combativeness, and invincible heroism demonstrated by the Communists in the struggle for the defense of popular, national, and democratic interests.

10. Party tactics: The central committee, on the basis of the current correlation forces and the characteristics of this political moment, agrees to focus the tactics of the party in the following direction: to promote the development of a broad national movement in favor of a progressive, nationalist, and democratic change. The points of the minimum program approved by the seventh plenum can serve for cooperation, agreement, and discussion with all the democratic forces in the country.

The central committee calls on all revolutionaries and patriots to develop a great mass movement for struggle against government terror and repression, for the release of political and military prisoners, in defense of human rights, for university autonomy, for the legality of the PCV and the MIR, and in defense of the interests of all the social sectors affected by the proimperialist and antinational policy of the reactionary AD leadership. The central committee urges the organization of this great national movement in all spheres, giving impetus to the struggles and mobilizations of the masses, on large and small scale, for their political, social, and economic demands.

This national movement must have as its objective: to remove from power the reactionary leadership of the AD and to provoke a progressivist change in favor of democratic freedoms and national sovereignty with the support of the nationalist civilian and military sectors. This national movement must not-repeat-not make exclusions in advance. The PCV and the JC offer their cooperation in encouraging its growth among the popular masses. The alliance policy of the PCV will develop in accordance with the attitude the other political forces take toward the Betancourtist leadership and the dominance of the reactionary, leadership of the AD, human rights and democratic freedoms, police repression and terror, and the demands of the nationalist sectors.

In the course of the struggle for a progressive change in favor of democratic freedoms and national sovereignty, the most responsible revolutionary forces will be grouping and strengthenig. The PCV declares it will comply with the agreements concerning the program of change and the struggle for its realization which may be adopted with the consensus of all interested sectors and that it will advance all the activities aimed at giving impetus to a great mass movement around that program. In the development of its alliance policy, the PCV will defend its political independence and its own views concerning the best road for the Venezuelan revolution.

With regard to the national movement, the central committee resolves to have the party participate actively in the coming electoral process under the slogan: "Ni continuismo ni cladera, cambio; Change in Favor of Democratic freedoms, National Sovereignty, and the Independent Development of Venezuela." The electoral process is being handled in a rigged and repressive manner. The party will struggle against that situation and to make of the elections a battle against the reactionary leadership of the AD and the government.

The central committee will adopt new tactical measures for the party in the immediate future, in the knowledge that the electorial process and the struggle to prevent the continuity of the reactionary AD leadersh p will become the great center of (word indistinct) of the real nationalist and democratic forces. This tactic will always be in the service of the general strategic objectives of the Venezuelan revolution.

The central committee, in raising, more vigorously than ever before, the slogan that the fundamental problem of Venezuela is to end its dependence on U.S. imperialism, overcome backwardness, and win complete political and economic independence, does not-repeat-not forget that this is impossible to achieve through elections, but it is no less true that one cannot scorn the importance of an electoral defeat of the reactionary AD leadership, particularly if it comes about as the result of a mass movement with the active participation of the left and the PCV. The removal of the ruling reactionary AD leadership would mean the creation of a new political picture, a change in the correlation of forces favorable

APPENDIX VI

COLOMBIA

[From Granma, July 2, 1967]

ATTACK!-A REPORT BY MARIO MENÉNDEZ IN COLOMBIA

MEXICO CITY, JUNE 21 (PL).-In the most recent issue of the magazine Sucesos, Editor-in-Chief Mario Menéndez Rodríguez published the first of his articles on the National Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN). This extensive and sensational report on the activities of the ELN in northern Colombia includes a detailed eyewitness account of an attack on a military train made by the guerrillas.

Menéndez' article, "¡Al Ataque!" (Attack!) stresses that in the ELN there is a strict military discipline that "has 'hardened' all members in a way I had not observed in any other Latin American insurgent movement."

The Mexican journalist, who has interviewed the principal leaders of the guerrilla movements in Venezuela and Guatemala, details-in this 56-page report-his impressions during a month-long stay with ÉLN combatants. The article is profusely illustrated, with 75 photographs.

In addition to telling of the attack made by guerrillas of the José Antonio Galán Front, under the direct leadership of the ELN commander in chief, Fabio Vásquez Castaño, the article also tells of the successful attack on and taking of the town of Vijagual by guerrillas of the second, new front-named after Camilo Torres Restrepo, and commanded by Major Ricardo Lara Parada.

These two guerrilla fronts carry on their activities in the departments of Santander and North Santander in northern Colombia.

This article, which bears a heading taken from the words of Cuban patriot José Martí: "Words are not to conceal the truth, but to reveal it," reports that for the first time in the history of the Latin American liberation struggle a guerrilla action-the attack on a military train-has been filmed from beginning to end while it was actually happening. This exclusive documentary film is the work of Sucesos photographer Armando Salgado, who accompanied Menéndez to Colombia.

According to Menéndez, "This is the first time that an interview has been given by the extraordinary insurgent leader and ELN commander in chief, Fabio Vásquez Castaño."

"Al Ataque!" is written in three parts: a summary of the Colombian situation and the ideas of ELN martyr-priest Camilo Torres Restrepo; an account of the attack on a military train; and a discussion of the courage and heroism of the ELN combatants, described as "extraordinary apostles, men with an admirable sense of sacrifice and devotion-Quixotes of our times."

TWENTY-FOUR FAMILIES RUN COLOMBIA

This report, written during February, March and April of this year, begins by stressing the fact that "Twenty-four families run Colombia-at the point of a bayonet-today, dominating the political, economic and social destinies of more than sixteen million persons in Simon Bolivar's adopted homeland and leaving the people of Colombia abandoned, in desolation and misery."

He points up Colombia's high illiteracy and mortality rates and contrasts these with the fact that "Colombia's military budget is larger than the total sums allotted for education and public health." In dealing with the political machinery of Colombia's reactionary forces, and the prospects of opposition use of legal methods, he quotes the priest Camilo Torres Restrepo:

"Since it is impossible for the opposition groups who succeed in being elected to parliament to overcome those who control the electoral machine and all other levers of power, those opposition groups will never be able to make any revolutionary transformations.'

THE ONLY ROAD: ARMED STRUGGLE

The Mexican journalist again quotes the words of the heroic martyred priest and revolutionary leader who stressed that "The people in general have believed and continue to believe that the only way to solve their political, social and economic problems and win complete independence is through armed struggle." Menéndez stresses that it is in Colombia that "The best subjective and objective conditions exist for waging revolutionary warfare." And, specifically referring to the ELN, he points out that "One of the factors that enables one to predict victory for the ELN in Colombia is this: it is composed almost wholly of peasants." He praises the determination of the founders of the ELN, who began by organizing a guerrilla movement-practically without funds-only a little over two years ago in Santander Department. "Nonetheless, to cover up their own lack of effectiveness and to get more money from their masters in the U.S., members of the Colombian oligarchy blamed Cuba, the nation which has become the major worry of the imperialists today."

Menéndez has high praise for the disciplined life led by the ELN guerrilla forces. Their daily schedule-which is only changed in the event of battle-includes: reveille at 5:30 a.m.; physical education classes; morning classes in Spanish, history, sociological problems and political science; disassembly and cleaning of rifles; and, in the evening, classes in military strategy based on the history of revolt in Colombia itself.

"The ELN is an admirable school that is brining the peasant forth from the shadows, that i cerned about his health, and that is waging revolutionary

war that will lead him to the winning of power."

Menéndez also describes the personality of Fabio Vásquez Castaño. "This extraordinary leader and guerrilla commander possesses a correct concept of politicalmilitary strategy. He is a young man who deeply feels the problems of his oppressed country, problems that do not permit him to live in peace. He reminds us, not only because of a certain physical resemblance, but also because of his positive concept of what a revolution in Latin America is and should be, of Fidel Castro the insurgent and the 26th of July Movement-which has a twin in the National Liberation Army of Colombia."

Vásquez Castaño, who is thirty years of age, is of rural extraction. His father was assassinated during the years of reactionary violence.

FABIO VÁSQUEZ: ABSOLUTE SCORN FOR THE "LEADERS" OF THE VENEZUELAN CP

Reporting on his first conversation with the leader of the ELN, which touched upon various aspects of the revolutionary movement in Latin America, Menéndez pointed out Vásquez's “absolute scorn for the 'leaders' of the Communist Party of Venezuela.” He quotes Fabio Vásquez as follows:

"The degree of decomposition that exists in the poorly terms 'revolutionary camp' is incredible. We feel respect and admiration only for Cuba and Fidel Castro, who is a berraquera (Colombian term used to describe a real man, in every sense of the word) of a revolutionary

Vásquez also expressed a high opinion of "the extraordinary other patriot leader, Major Ricardo Lara Parada, leader of the front bearing the name of the priest-martyr of the Colombian Revolution."

Menéndez speaks of the outstanding personal qualities of Lara Parada, "whose seizure of Vijagual was a source of inspiration for the men of the José Antonio Galán Front." He also includes a full account-published for the first time-of the Vijagual action as described by Major Lara Parada in a message to Fabio Vásquez.

CAMILO TORRES WAS A MAN WITH AN IRON WILL

Describing the battle of Patiocemento, where priest Camilo Torres was killed, Menéndez says: "He was killed in combat against two soldiers armed with automatic weapons. The only weapons the priest had were a .45-caliber pistol, an iron will and determination."

In another part of the article, Menéndez points out the changes that have taken place among the inhabitants of the zone where the ELN combatants operate; he gives the example of Barranca Bermeja, one of the country's important oil centers. "In Barranca Bermeja, in only two years it has become evident what a correct conception of armed propaganda can do to incorporate Latin America's weak working class into struggle. In this oil center par excellence the trade union was headed by so-called revolutionaries-'book' revolutionaries-dogmatists who only wanted to create martyrs, without perspectives; sectarians who, for