Members of the Communist Youth of Venezuela (JCV) had just finished publicity work at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 21 when incendiary devices, launched from different points, struck the façade of their headquarters building in Caracas. Evidently the deadly projectiles also entered the building, and the activists extinguished the fire in their meeting room that resulted. None were injured. They alerted firefighting and police authorities.

The attack followed by three weeks the murder in Caracas of young, charismatic socialist National Assembly delegate, Robert Serra. Colombian paramilitaries are implicated in that assassination.

The building under fire bomb attack, in the Artigas section of Caracas, serves as both JCV headquarters and offices of a local branch of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV).

That same day the National JCV Executive Commission issued a statement saying: “This deed occurs within the framework of violence imposed by fascism since February of this year carried out by mercenaries and paramilitaries serving the extreme, pro-imperialist right.” The reference is to street protests prevailing from February through June, 2014 at the hands of well-funded, well- prepared right-wing youths opposed to the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro. An estimated 50 people were killed.

“Their motive is precisely to interject terror and try to demobilize the combative, revolutionary Venezuelan student movement.”

Also that day the PCV Political Bureau (PB), having met with the National JCV Executive Commission, issued an “official note” which said, in part: The attack serves “to corroborate repeated indications noted by Communist leaders of the development of a plan by the most reactionary sectors of the right to frighten, demoralize, and hit at forces of the revolutionary people’s movement.” The Political Bureau demanded a “speedy investigation and clarification of this deed, and identification and punishment of those who are materially and intellectually responsible.”

Lastly, the PB alerted the “PCV, JCV, and other revolutionary militants” that “we fight decisively for the defense and deepening of process of changes.” We must “strengthen our revolutionary vigilance, our conviction in the justice of our cause and our capacity to organize, mobilize, and effectively respond against attacks and provocations of the pro-imperialist right.”

President Maduro both condemned the attack and called “upon political forces of this country” to do the same. The object, he said, “was to bring our country into an atmosphere of confrontations and hatred that leads to chaos.” Ernesto Villegas, a vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, communicated his party’s solidarity with Venezuelan Communists.

The PCV and JCV received messages of solidarity from communist parties in Chile, Spain, Greece, Mexico, and the United States. In its communication, the CPUSA cited, “horror and indignation” at the incident. The CPUSA expressed concern that” “individuals and organizations in our country have been working to to demonize the Bolivarian Movement in Venezuela and other nations in the Hemisphere with a view to facilitating the destabilization of these countries and effectuating ‘regime change.'”

“We demand that all these activities cease,” the letter added.

Photo: Building that serves as headquarters for the Communist youth organization in Caracas. Note burn marks left by the bomb. Photo by Yury Weky