The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE) was founded on 1 August 1964, and its Founding Congress was held in Pascuales, Guayas province.
The antecedents of the Party lie in the old Communist Party, which in the fifties and early sixties of the last century, in the midst of an intense ideological and political struggle over the role that communists should play in moving the Ecuadorian revolution forward, was influenced by the debate that involved the International Communist Movement and led to its split. The Marxist-Leninists of the former Communist Party denounced and fought against the policy of pacifism and class conciliation supported by the majority of the leadership of this organisation, which at that time was already committed to the political proposals of the revisionist Marxists, who proclaimed the peaceful path to socialism against the path of armed uprising of the peoples.
Equipped with Marxism-Leninism, the ideology of the proletariat, the Party from the very beginning carried out its work among the working class, peasantry, student youth and popular sectors. In 1970, the First National Conference was held, which approved the Political Line, the General Programme of the Ecuadorian Revolution and the Party Statutes, fundamental documents that have been developed and updated to date in accordance with changes in Ecuadorian society and the world.
Until 2003, the Party held six ordinary congresses and one extraordinary congress on a national scale.
In 1978, after a deep discussion within the entire Party, the PCMLE characterised Mao Zedong’s thought as dogmatic and anti-Marxist.
The Party characterises Ecuadorian society as dependent on imperialism and backward capitalism, in which even expressions of non-capitalist forms of production persist. Accordingly, the Ecuadorian revolution must combine the implementation of socialist tasks with tasks of an anti-imperialist and democratic character. In the present conditions, in dependent countries like Ecuador, it is not possible to separate one from the other in order to advance towards socialism. The road to power is the armed insurrection of the working class and peoples.
The Party continues to publish the weekly En Marcha, which began publication in October 1966 and originally appeared under the name Spartacus. It publishes the journal Política as a theoretical organ and regularly publishes texts of the classics of Marxism-Leninism and other self-produced material.
His work among the working class and the people has led to the development and consolidation of various mass organisations, the formation of workers’ and peasants’ organisations such as the UGTE and UCAE, and youth organisations such as the JRE.
During the government of the Christian Democrat Jamil Mahuad, Jaime Hurtado, a member of the Party Politburo and leader of the Popular Democratic Movement, was assassinated.
PCMLE is a member of CIPOML.