ABSTRACT
The major communist parties of Latin America were founded in the early or middle 1920's. The broad appeal of Marxist ideology too many sectors in Latin America stands in marked contrast to the weakness of Marxist parties and organizations. The receptiveness of Latin America to Marxist ideology is promoted by a long tradition of anticapitalist thinking associated with Catholic and conservative hostility to the cruelties of the market system and support for state intervention to promote social justice. Marxism provides a more articulated ideology to give form to the longing for revolution, including a special place for the vanguard, the revolutionary elite that bring the proletariat to recognize its historical role. Where Marxism was successful as in Cuba and, for a time, in Chile, it was able to channel the much stronger forces of Latin American nationalism and populism into a Marxist direction.
