Douglas Bravo

Douglas Ignacio Bravo Mora (11 March 1932 – 31 January 2021) 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. He key figure in the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) ("Armed Forces of National Liberation"), although this put him on a collision course with the PCV, which was moving away from armed insurgency. Bravo secured the support of Fidel Castro for his activity but this was not enough and he was expelled from the Communist Party in 1967. In 1969 the Copei offered an amnesty deal and as a result many guerrillas gave up violence, although Bravo and a small band of followers continued ...