ABSTRACT

Fidel Castro's victory in January 1959, and the rapid transformation of his regime into a socialist dictatorship, caught the Latin American communist parties by surprise. Castro's relations with Latin American communist parties have remained correct if not "fraternal," but it is doubtful that he had changed his opinion about their revolutionary capacities or possibilities. Any effort to understand the arduous relations between Cuba's Revolutionary Government—Castro's government would be a better term—and the Latin American communist parties must take into account the evolution of three interrelated but not coincidental factors: Castro's ideas as to which revolutionary tactic should be applied in Latin America. These also include: the Soviet Union's international strategy and its influence on the continent and especially in Cuba, and the communist parties' real capacity to act as a "revolutionary vanguard." As has occurred in the rest of Latin America, in Nicaragua the Communist party failed to be the vanguard of the revolution.