Informe de Machado y la discusión posterior del informe 1929 11 00 The workers in Curaçao were enthusiastic, but the government brought about reprisals against the members of the and of the General Union. The Dutch Government sent warships and marines, and declared martial law. The camps where the Venezuelan workers used to live were razed. Deportations took place, but curiously, our comrades ware not de ported to Venezuela.
Venezuela was almost exclusively an agri cultural country until the oil resources began to be exploited seventeen years ago. Up to that time there was no industry worth mentioning, and, today, the most important industrial region is the State of Zulia where there exists a large conglomeration of industrial workers. Considering the Venezuelan proletariat, is necessary to note that besides the Maracaibo region, the most important conglomerations of Venezuelan industrial workers are to be found OUTSIDE OF VENEZUELA; we find that in Curaçao and Aruba there exists a very large concentration of workers in the oil industry; in Colombia, in the banana region, the Venezuelan workers formed a large proportion of the strikers and participated very actively in the struggle; in Cucuta, Colombia, there are about from ten to eleven thousand agricultural workers; in Barranca Bermeja, the oil centre of Colombia, Venezuelan workers participated in the bloody strike of 1927; in Trinidad we find about the same number of agricultural workers as in Cucuta.
As conditions are at present, see no possibility of organizing OPENLY the Communist Party of Venezuela. In Colombia we are faced with a situation where there is no Communist Party, and, besides, communism is outlawed. The situation in Trinidad and Curaçao is worse yet. The mere fact of being communists makes our comrades subject to deportation. In those places even being an open enemy of Dictator Gomez is a sufficient reason to be deported to Venezuela.
Question and statement by Browder. Our problem is: What are the ossibilities of forming a and having a centralized communist machine working inside the Your opinion that it was not possible is based on the fact that it is not possible to form a legally, but it is possible illegally, is it not? Answer Yes.
Machado: The opinion expressed by Comrade Pedro. representative of the in Mexico, was in favo ur of the formation of the Communist Party of Venezuela, maintaining at the same time the PRV as a Party for the 1669Véase la nota 483.
Mijail Grollman. 1896 1938. funcionario de la CEIC en asuntos de organización representante de la CEIC en México.