Socialist League (Venezuela)

For other groups with the same name, see Socialist League (disambiguation).
Socialist League
Liga Socialista
AbbreviationLS[1]
FounderJorge Antonio Rodríguez
Founded1973
Dissolved2007
Split fromRevolutionary Left Movement
Merged intoPSUV
HeadquartersCaracas
IdeologyMarxism[2]
Castroism[3]
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism[4]
Political positionFar-left

The Socialist League (Spanish: Liga Socialista, 'LS), initially known as the League for People's Rights and Socialism (Spanish: Liga por los Derechos del Pueblo y el Socialismo, LDPS),[1] was a Venezuelan political party. It was established in 1973 in a split from the Revolutionary Left Movement.[5][6]

The League was founded by Jorge Antonio Rodríguez, who was its Secretary General[5][6][7] and the father of Delcy Rodríguez Gómez and Jorge Rodríguez Gómez, both of whom have held high positions in the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.[8] It agreed in 2006 to merge into the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV),[9] which was founded by Chávez and coordinated in its early days by the son of Jorge Antonio, Jorge Rodríguez Gómez.[8]

It was described as Marxist-Leninist-Maoist,[4] although it was also explicitly pro-Cuban. It rejected Soviet Union's claim to leadership of international communism, and was committed to violent revolution.[10] It was legally structured and won a seat in the National Assembly of Venezuela in the 1978 Venezuelan general election. It formed a military unit that carried out the abduction of William Niehous, an American businessman, in 1976. The group obtained 20 million US dollars for the hostage, and held him captive for over 3 years.[11] After Herrera Campins became the president of Venezuela in 1979, Socialist League was pacified and legalized, ending its period of armed struggle.[1]

Nicolás Maduro was a member of the Socialist League.[4] When the organization reached an agreement with Cuba to send a small group of activists to Havana for political and military training, Maduro was amongst the ones sent by the Socialist League. Trained as an active cadre, Maduro later moved into union activism after securing a position in the Caracas Metro.[12] He was trained in the Julio Antonio Mella National Cadre School, under the personal tutelage of members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba.[11]

According to El País, the "League was a tiny party that promoted armed struggle between the 1970s and 1980s", that "demobilized" after its showing in the 1988 Venezuelan general election.[8] In the 1998 Venezuelan presidential election, the League endorsed Hugo Chávez.[1] Most members of the Socialist League, including Nicolás Maduro, Jorge Rodríguez, and Delcy Rodríguez, went on to become major officials of the Venezuelan chavista government in the 2000s.[13] In 2007, Socialist League merged into the United Socialist Party of Venezuela of Hugo Chávez.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Cortina Orero, Eudald (2020). "Notes on the Guerilla Experience in Venezuela (1958-1994)". In Dirk Kruijt; Eduardo Rey Tristán; Alberto Martín Álvarez (eds.). Latin American Guerrilla Movements: Origins, Evolution, Outcomes. Routledge. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-0-429-24406-3.
  2. ^ Toro, Francisco (13 September 2017). "Written Statement to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs For the hearing entitled: "The Venezuela Crisis: Malicious Influence of State and Criminal Actors" on September 13, 2017, 2:00 p.m. "Deep Down, Just One Single Government"". Caracas Chronicles. United States House of Representatives: 2. Maduro was still a teenager when he joined Venezuela's "Liga Socialista" — a fringe, militantly pro-Cuban Marxist Party.
  3. ^ Toro, Quico (5 January 2026). "Venezuela's New President Is No Moderate". Persuasion. The Liga Socialista was a tiny, explicitly pro-Cuban splinter from a larger (but still small) Marxist group that rejected the peace process that had ended Venezuela's short-lived guerrilla war of the 1960s.
  4. ^ a b c "Datos oficiales dan ganador a Maduro con el 51,2% de los votos, pero la oposición lo niega". Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (in Spanish). Caracas. 28 July 2024. Los primeros acercamientos de Maduro con la política se dieron en la década de 1970, cuando se sumó a la Liga Socialista, una agrupación de línea marxista-leninista-maoista, también ligada a la izquierda subversiva venezolana de los años 70. [Maduro's first forays into politics took place in the 1970s, when he joined the Socialist League, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group also linked to the subversive Venezuelan left of the 1970s.]
  5. ^ a b "Rodríguez, Jorge Antonio". Fundación Empresas Polar. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Cruz LaPeña, Silvia (October 27, 2020). "Delcy Rodríguez, la mujer que puso en jaque al gobierno de Pedro Sánchez" [Delcy Rodríguez, the woman who put Pedro Sánchez's government in check]. Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on July 4, 2022.
  7. ^ Perozo Padua, Luis Alberto (July 7, 2022). "Carlos Lanz, la FALN y los secuestros de las hijas de Renny Ottolina y de Niehous" [Carlos Lanz, the FALN and the kidnappings of the daughters of Renny Ottolina and Niehous]. El impulso. Retrieved August 5, 2023.
  8. ^ a b c Alvarado, Sinar (April 15, 2024). "Jorge Rodríguez, el psiquiatra frío que espera su turno para suceder a Nicolás Maduro" [Jorge Rodríguez, the cold psychiatrist who awaits his turn to succeed Nicolás Maduro]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on April 15, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
  9. ^ Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN) (21 December 2006). "Liga Socialista se adhiere al PSUV". Aporrea (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  10. ^ Toro, Quico (5 January 2026). "Venezuela's New President Is No Moderate". Persuasion.
  11. ^ a b c Pirela, Arnoldo (2020). "Geopolítica petrolera y autoritarismo en América Latina y el Caribe: el caso Venezuela". L'Amérique latine face à la transition énergétique (in Spanish) (115). doi:10.4000/caravelle.8795.
  12. ^ Castellanos, José Emilio (16 January 2023). "¿Quién en verdad es Nicolás Maduro y por qué es el hombre de los Castro…?". Analitica (in Spanish).
  13. ^ Toro, Francisco (13 September 2017). "Written Statement to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs For the hearing entitled: "The Venezuela Crisis: Malicious Influence of State and Criminal Actors" on September 13, 2017, 2:00 p.m. "Deep Down, Just One Single Government"". Caracas Chronicles. United States House of Representatives: 2.
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