The Popular Socialist Party (Spanish: Partido Socialista Popular, PSP) was a communist party in Cuba. Originally called the Communist Party of Cuba (Spanish: Partido Comunista de Cuba), it was formed in the 1925 by a group including Blas Roca, Anibal Escalante, Fabio Grobart, Alfonso Bernal del Riesgo and Julio Antonio Mella, who acted as its leader until his assassination in Mexico in 1929. It was later renamed the "Communist Revolutionary Union". The party supported Gerardo Machado and Fulgencio Batista, joining his first government in 1940 with one minister without portfolio, and was initially critical of Fidel Castro. After the electoral victory of the Partido Auténtico in the 1944 elections, the party went into decline, and eventually adopted the name "Popular Socialist Party" for ele