The history of the Communist International in Latin America has been usually studied as the simple political or even institutional history of the individual Communist parties. That kind of work can be very useful, but it does not lend itself to an understanding of the differentia specifica of a Communist Party with reference to any other party. That is, the difference which comes from its international character, its centralized organization and, above all, its ultimate aim – world revolution. To study the Comintern taking this as a point of departure allows the investigator not only to capture more easily its organization on a continental scale, but also facilitates an analysis of the role and the significance of the Communist International in twentieth-century world history.

The leaders of the Third (Communist) International (1919–43) never appeared to believe seriously that a Leninist revolution (a Socialist revolution in their own language) could triumph in Latin America before it did in Europe or the larger Asian countries. The Comintern was created in March 1919 to complete on a worldwide scale the revolutionary process started a year before in Russia. Lenin and his comrades conceived the world revolution as a fire which, having been set alight first in Russia, would spread to Western Europe, fanned by the impending victory of the German revolution (in spite of the failure of the Spartakist uprising of November 1918).