The Dominican Communist Party (Spanish: Partido Comunista Dominicano) was a political party in the Dominican Republic. The party was founded in 1944 under the name Dominican Revolutionary Democratic Party. The party worked under the name Dominican Popular Socialist Party from 1946 to 1965. In August 1965 the name was again changed, to Dominican Communist Party. In 1975 Orlando Martinez Howley, the journalist, PCD member and prominent critic of the Balaguer regime, was murdered. In 1996, the PCD ceased to exist and merged with the (FR 21), the (FRLP) and the (ML-12) to form a new party, .