Teodoro Petkoff Malec (Spanish pronunciation: [teoˈðoɾo peðˈkof maˈlek]; 3 January 1932 – 31 October 2018) was a Venezuelan politician, economist and journalist.

One of Venezuela's most prominent politicians on the left, Petkoff began as a communist but founded the democratic socialist Movement Toward Socialism party after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

[1] He was a prominent critic of President Hugo Chávez and was a candidate to run against him in the 2006 presidential election until he dropped out four months before the vote to support Manuel Rosales.

[2] In 1971, Petkoff left the PCV to found, along with other dissidents, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In 2005 he published The Two Lefts (Las dos izquierdas, Alfadil Editor, Hogueras Collection) where he analyzed the resurgence of left-wing politics in Latin America.

[3][2] On 21 April 2006, after rumours indicating that a number of intellectuals and middle-class liberal activists had asked him to run in the 2006 Presidential election, Teodoro Petkoff launched his campaign to be the next president of Venezuela.

He said that "Chávez has more fascist than socialist elements, unless we speak of Stalinism: the cult of violence and death, contempt for opponents, singing to the past, and so on.