COMMUNISTS have expressed solidarity with their sister party in Venezuela against what they described as political attacks and oppression in the run-up to local elections on November 21.

In an open letter, more than 25 communist parties from around the world condemned the decision of Venezuela’s national electoral council to block Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and Popular Revolutionary Alternative candidates in the municipalities of Caracas and Macanao and in the state of Guaira.

Branding the decision “completely objectionable and unjustifiable,” they accused the Venezuelan government of launching anti-communist attacks and called on it to reverse its stance.

“The PCV has a long tradition of anti-imperialist struggle in the service of the working class and the popular strata, in defence of the sovereignty of its country for the past 90 years,” the letter said.

“Its reinforcement will always be a guarantee of anti-imperialist, democratic and revolutionary struggles in Venezuela.”

Earlier this year, President Nicolas Maduro accused the PCV of being “agents of imperialism.”

He warned that the party was trying to divide the Venezuelan revolutionary movement after it announced that it would field candidates against his ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

The PCV has been critical of Mr Maduro’s economic policies, and said in August last year that there can be no socialism “where there is dependent and rentier capitalism that is in deep crisis.”