Federico Britto Figueroa (La Victoria, 2 November 1921 - Caracas, 28 April 2000) was a Venezuelan Marxist historian and anthropologist.
Brito's ideas and writings played an important role in the ideological formation of Hugo Chavez, former president of Venezuela.
Born in La Victoria in Venezuela, Brito was a member of Venezuela's National Democratic Party (Partido Democrático Nacional — PDN, which later renamed Acción Democrática) in 1936.
Britto, after profound schisms appeared in the Venezuelan left, joined the Venezuelan Communist Party (Partido Comunista de Venezuela — PCV), together with Domingo Maza Zavala and Luis Miquilena.
In 1946, Britto entered the Instituto PedagĂłgico Nacional (National Teaching Institute) to obtain the title of professor of social sciences.
Britto's doctoral thesis was the renowned and influential work La estructura econĂłmica de Venezuela colonial (The Economic Structure of Colonial Venezuela), which he wrote in 1963 and published in 1978.
Key points of his works included the elucidation of slavery, the study of Venezuelan "Federal War" general Ezequiel Zamora, and a critical and probing analysis of the socioeconomic underpinnings of both colonialism and neocolonialism..