People's Vanguard (Party)

People's Vanguard Party (Maracatibe)

The People's Vanguard, (in : Vanguarda Popular / In : Abá Vanguáda), also known by its acronym VP, was a Maracatibean ,and posteriorly, , that existed legally between 1913 and 1944, when it was banned. After 1950, the People's Vanguard turned into the People's Vanguard Army, an armed organization that acted in the Maracatibean Conflict between 1956 and its dissolution in 1986. People's Vanguard advocated better labor rights, less dependence from foreign companies, agrarian reform and the end of farm elite privileges under the First Republic.

Foundation
In 1913, Maracatibe had it first elected government after independence, and the following year, elections would be held. Independence had brought better living conditions only to a white landowning elite. In this context, the Vanguarda Popular, whose name informs, was created to be a front for the defense of the interests of the mass of the common population. The PV had as sympathetic socialist thinkers, unionists, small rural workers and workers, who demanded an end to the policies of racial segregation and instruments that ended the vote of coercion (which guaranteed the victory of oligarchs).

In 1916, the party led a General Strike that paralyzed the country and forced President Joaquim Góis to meet the demands of the population, although it pursued the leadership of the PV, with many members, including the first president, Eurico Holanda, being arrested.

First presidential elections (1920)
In 1920, Isabel Holanda, wife of the party's founder, became the first woman to run for president. Holanda obtained 5.6% of the votes, coming in fourth place. In those elections she won the candidate Rômulo Esmeralda, of the Liberal Republican Party.

Election of president Márcio Andrade (1924)
In 1924, after an economic crisis that caused high unemployment and hunger, in addition to a series of episodes of government violence, the socialist ideals of the PV managed to be better disseminated. Candidate Márcio Andrade led the polls, and came to suffer two assassination attempts, which only caused his popularity to increase.

The 1924 elections were the first to have two rounds, with Márcio Andrade competing with the independent Salvador Lopes. Andrade won with 52.5% of the valid votes, in an election with several accusations of fraud on both sides.

When he came to power, Andrade carried out an, nationalized several sectors of the economy, increased the and created a new labor code, things that made the attacks of the opposition increase.

Coup and radicalization (1926)
In 1926, general Carlos Alberto Menezes, supported by parliament, carried out a coup d'état against Márcio Andrade, arresting him. The blow was badly received by the population, and great fighting was fought until People's Vanguard returned to power and radicalized.

The PV called a Constituent Assembly made up of members of the industry workers, rural workers, teachers and intellectuals, all linked to the party, and this resulted in the creation of Maracatibean People's Republic, which existed between 1926 and 1944. Due to the coup, the PV was radicalized  and started to openly assume the revolutionary socialist ideology.

Under Socialist Republic
People's Vanguard was the only party to exist within the socialist regime, persecuting opponents.

Ban and creation of armed group
With the 1944 coup, Maracatibean People's Republic was dissolved, and for 12 years, People's Vanguard was banned from the country's politics. Its leaders were arrested and some executed by the new government, and the PV began to act as a domestic terrorist group until 1956, when President Cláudio Mendonça disbanded the party. This would be the trigger for a coup d'état, given by }[Raymundo Cunha]], who returned the PV to illegality.

People's Vanguard started to act as a far-left guerrilla group, under the name People's Vanguard Army.

Now
The United Socialist Party of the Maracatibean People was founded by former members of People's Vanguard Army, and declares itself to be a spiritual successor to People's Vanguard.