Souza Batista, Rubén Darío

Born Sept. 25, 1923, in Panama City. Figure in the Panamanian labor movement.

The son of a craftsman, Souza Batista was trained as a journalist. In 1943 he began participating in student and youth movements. In 1945 he was elected general secretary of the Panamanian Youth Association. Souza Batista became a member of the People’s Party of Panama in 1946, joined the Politburo of the party’s Central Committee in 1948, and was appointed general secretary of the Central Committee in 1951. Repeated repression forced him to leave the country. Souza Batista has written a number of theoretical works on the communist and democratic movements in Panama and Latin America.