People's Vanguard Party (Costa Rica)

The People's Vanguard Party, or Popular Vanguard Party (Partido Vanguardia Popular) is a communist party in Costa Rica. PVP was founded in 1931 as the Workers and Farmers Party, but was soon renamed to the Communist Party of Costa Rica (Partido Comunista de Costa Rica).

From 1931 to 1947, the party published Trabajo as a communist newspaper. The PVP's current publication is El Popular.

History
In 1943, the party was renamed as PVP, in order to facilitate its alliance with the Catholic Church and the government, whose reformist policies the party supported.

In 1949, the party was banned. Its militants began working under the name 'Partido Acción Socialista Obrera'.

In the mid-1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 300.

In 1970, the party again could contest elections.

In 1984, a severe internal crisis appeared in the party. At the 14th party congress, two of the party MPs, Arnoldo Ferreto Segura and Humberto Vargas Carbonell took over the party leadership and deposed Mora (who had led the party since 1934). Mora's followers continued to use the name PVP, thus there were two parties with the same name. In 1984 Mora's party took the name Costa Rican People's Party.

On April 29, 2012, VP held a constitutive assembly for the electoral registration that would allow them to participate as a national party in the 2014 elections, which finally did not happen. At the meeting, María Isabel Fallas was elected president of the provisional executive committee. Subsequently, Trino Barrantes Araya would assume that position. In the XVI International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, from November 13 to 15, 2014, the Partido Vanguardia Popular was represented by Luis Salas Sarkis and Sonia Zamora.