Douglas Bravo (1932-2021) *88

was a Venezuelan politician and guerrilla fighter. A native of the village of Cabure in Falcón, he became involved in the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) at an early age, establishing a party youth group in his home village in 1946. He took a key role in trade union agitation, actively supporting strikes by oil workers in 1950 and students in 1952, being imprisoned briefly on both occasions. He enrolled at University of Zulia in 1953.

Involved in agitation against the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Bravo played a role in planning the 1950 coup d'etat that ousted the dictator. Emerging as the leader of the militant tendency of the PCV, he encouraged the party to resist the government of Rómulo Betancourt and decamped to the hills to organise armed guerrilla resistance. He was arrested in 1961 but escaped custody the following year and in his home state established the José Leonardo Chirino Front along the lines of the movement that had successfully taken control in Cuba.