Douglas Bravo

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Douglas Bravo, born March 11, 1923, is a former guerilla fighter and Venezuelan politician.

Bravo became a member of the Communist Party of Venezuela in 1946, only to be expelled from it in 1965.

By March of 1966, he directed the Party of Venezuelan Revolution, or Partido de la Revolución Venezolana (PRV). He led the organization's militant wing, the Armed Forces of National Liberation (Venezuela), or Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) in an insurgency within Venezuela that lasted into the mid-1970s. He was later exiled to France, but returned.

Bravo is a fervent anti-imperialist, has had contacts with Che Guevara, and was ideologically opposed to the policies of the Soviet Union.

As part of his plan to foment a successful revolution in Venezuela due to the marginalization of the public through the Punto Fijo Pact of 1958, Bravo recruited military officiers sympathetic to his cause within the ranks of the Army. One officer was a young Hugo Chávez, whom Bravo met in 1980. Chávez would later become the President of Venezuela.

Bravo participated in the Venezuelan coup attempt of 1992, was arrested, and pardoned the following year.

Bravo is currently the leader of the Third Road Movement which criticizes President Hugo Chávez from a left-wing standpoint, while at the same time in partial agreement with his economic policies.