ABSTRACT
This paper examines the development of the Uruguayan Communist Party during the Sixties as a slightly heterodox pro-soviet Latin American party. In the most algid period of the Cold War in Latin America, from the missiles crisis of 1962 to the deposition of President Salvador Allende in 1973, the PCU played an important role for the international Communist movement, considering its small dimension. In a time of difficult relations between Cubans and Soviets, Rodney Arismendi - its main leader from 1955 to 1989, became a reliable man for both sides. Probably because of that he could act as an intermediary between La Habana and Moscow. At the domestic level the PCU was one of the most vehement defenders of the Cuban Revolution and the most emphatic critic of the mechanic application of its strategy to Uruguay. In such times, it was not so simple to combine the Soviet preference for the pacific road to socialism with the Cuban revolutionary rhetoric. This paper analyzes the foundations and the way in which the Uruguayan communists deal with this ambiguous position, focusing on how they tried to combine Democracy and Revolution.
Keywords:
Communist Party; Uruguay; Latin American Cold War; democratic loyalty