Latin America has written beautiful pages in the history of socialism. The Cuban Revolution, Salvador Allende’s thousand days in power in Chile, and more recent movements in Bolivia and Venezuela have long placed it at the center of Marxists’ attentions. The bind between powerful worker and peasant movements and resistance to US imperialism have also made Latin America a fulcrum of internationalist exchanges.

Nonetheless, this vast region plays a marginal role in most histories of the Communist International. Founded in March 1919 in the hope of spreading revolution around the globe, the Comintern was from the outset a largely European phenomenon. Most delegates to its First Congress were exiles from the old continent who already lived in Moscow; there was some Asian representation, but none from Latin America or Africa.

Yet even if Brazil or Peru stood geographically and politically far from Russia, the Comintern was not simply aloof from Latin America. The foundation of Communist parties in Mexico and Argentina in 1917–18 was soon followed by the attempt to build sections of this “world party” across the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, as anti-imperialism took on an increasing role in Comintern affairs.