Tricontinental, OLAS and the Communist Parties of Latin America: Choosing the Path of Revolution

This paper is devoted to the discussions in the communist movement of Latin America in relation to the initiative of the Cuban leadership, supported by left-wing radical parties and groups, to hold in Havana a conference of solidarity of Asia, Africa and Latin America, known as the Tricontinental in 1966, as well as the subsequent initiative of Cuba to create the Organization of Solidarity of Latin American Countries (OLAS) in 1967. unification of insurrectionary and guerrilla movements under the political and ideological leadership of Castroist Cuba. These attempts to create a kind of Latin American insurrectionary International caused an ambiguous position of the communist parties of the region, supported by the CPSU. The attempt of the Cuban leadership to impose its agenda and its ideological principles on all left-wing forces in the region caused stiff opposition from the majority of the communist parties. In this article, based on the documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU, collected in the archive of the Russian State Academy of Aniculture, an analysis of these contradictions is proposed. These documents are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, complementing numerous studies on this topic, showing the little-studied side of convening a conference. The article attempts to prove the hypothesis that it was the refusal of the CPs to follow the Cuban line, to provide their organizational structure and political capital for the realization of the goals of the Castro line, that caused the short-lived existence of these Cuban initiatives.