If your country has oil, it will also have a U.S. campaign of murder. Gustavo Machado, a founder of the Partido Revolucionario Venezolano, forerunner of the Venezuelan Communist Party, on the assassination by U.S.-backed dictator Juan Vicente Gómez of 74-year-old revolutionary activist Hilario Montenegro in Curacao.

‘U.S. Imperialism Murders’ by Gustavo Machado from The Daily Worker. Vol. 5 No. 343. February 7, 1929.

Agents of Gomez, Wall St. Puppet, Assassinate Hilario Montenegro

The assassination in Curacao, Dutch West Indies, of the Venezuelan revolutionary, Hilario Montenegro, by agents of the Venezuelan dictator, Juan Vicente Gomez, a crime similar to the murder of Julio Mella, Cuban revolutionary in Mexico City, December 10, by agents of Gerardo Machado, dictator of Cuba—again draws the attention of workers of the United States to the crimes of United States imperialism, as it is unquestionable that both these puppet rulers of Cuba and Venezuela are mere creatures of Wall Street and its Washington government.

But, in addition, these assassinations bring to light the fierceness with which the workers and peasants of Latin-America are struggling against both American and British imperialism and their native hirelings who seize and hold to power by murder and suppression. The struggle in Venezuela is no new thing, but it has taken new and important forms.

For that reason, to reveal what the struggle is, in which Hilario Montenegro has fallen under the assassin’s knife, we give the following manifesto issued recently by the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party, whose activities, because of the terror, are directed by refugees in countries outside Venezuela. The manifesto follows:

***

THE ferocious dictatorship which Juan Vicente Gomez inaugurated in 1908, a continuation of the regime of Cipriano Castro, is travelling rapidly toward a fatal end. The unconditional supporters of the dictator are disconcerted at the inefficacy of the terror and at the progressive disintegration of the military forces which maintain them in power. Venezuela, gigantic torture chamber where a whole people suffers misery, exploitation and death, Venezuela unarmed and bleeding, has raised itself in proud attempt to affirm in the face of the bestial dictatorship its unbreakable resolution of shaking off the ignominious yoke and burying forever the medieval political system which, from the Independence until our own days, has condemned the people to ignorance, to cruel and humiliating slavery in the barracks, and iniquitous exploitation for the workers.

Masses Revolt.

A trivial incident, a police persecution of the students of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas—trivial under the present inquisitorial regime—set off an explosion of popular anger. In March and April of last year, the disarmed Venezuelan people launched itself into the streets.

The women, in public demonstration, stimulated rebellion. The workers and employes paralyzed the economic life of the country. Many soldiers turned their arms against the enemies of the people—who were also their own enemies and blood flowed in the streets of the capital. Similar events occurred in many cities of Venezuela.

Assassinations, tortures, imprisonments and a most violent and open persecution crowned the momentary triumph of the dictatorship. But the people has not been conquered. The popular masses, at their awakening, have learned that their political and economic liberation must be their own work. It was the first time in the history of Venezuela that the masses have thrown themselves against the government in the effort to conquer power. It was the first time that the political compromisers and exploiters have been pushed aside by the popular uprising.

Again Revolt.

The battle continues. A new assault against the stronghold of the dictatorship took place in November last. Despite the strict censorship it is known that open battles occurred in the streets of the capital, and that more than ten persons, among them both workers and students, were killed. Political strikes, similar to those of March and April, proved anew the leading and active intervention of the workers in the struggle.

Facing this unprecedented revolutionary situation, the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party expresses its solidarity with the valiant fighters who are struggling within Venezuela, and sends its fraternal greetings to the victims of our emancipation. No Trickery!

It again denounces the maneuvers of the Venezuelan leaders abroad who try to substitute the present dictatorship, sold to the oil companies, for a regime equal in oppression, in favor of one of the two rival imperialists in the fight: the Dutch Shell (English), and the Standard Oil (North American). It denounces the intrigues of foreign capital, which tries to create an “Independent” republic of the oil regions on the border of Venezuela and Colombia.

It invites the Venezuelan revolutionaries to organize their struggle against the present dictatorship, against the future compromisers and against the foreign imperialist interests, within the ranks of our Party, which is the only political organization ready to defend the sovereignty of the Venezuelan people and defend the poor and exploited class against the avarice and despotism of the classes which until now have profited from political and economic domination.

The hour has passed in which the political leaders can move armies to their personal profit. The popular masses go to the struggle to emancipate themselves politically and economically, to gain the individual rights contained in all the Venezuelan constitutions which have been respected on rare occasions by the governors only in order to rob for the rich classes the just value of the labor of the poor who today receive but a miserable wage, to suppress the unjust exploitation of the peasantry, to transform, in short, the political and economic regime, and to establish a social system based on the Basic Principles of our Party, a social system that will guarantee in an effective form the liberty and the interests of all workers.

For the emancipation of the peasant from the land-owner.

For the emancipation of the worker from the domination of the capitalist.

For the emancipation of the soldier from the despotism of the commander.

For Social Justice.

(Signed) Gustavo Machado, General Secretary.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1929/1929-ny/v05-n343-NY-feb-07-1929-DW-LOC.pdf