Hope for Change Esperanza por El Cambio | |
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President | Javier Bertucci |
General Secretary | Alfonso Campos |
Coordinator | Jeickson Portillo |
Undersecretary | Luis Adames |
Founded | February 28, 2018 |
Headquarters | Valencia, Venezuela |
Ideology | Christian democracy |
Political position | Centre |
National affiliation | Democratic Alliance |
Website | |
www.partidoelcambio.org | |
Esperanza por el Cambio (English: Hope for Change) is a Venezuelan political party registered by the National Electoral Council (CNE) with the shortened name El Cambio (Change). [1] [2] In the 2018 presidential election, Venezuelan pastor and party leader Javier Bertucci received enough votes to turn Hope for Change into an official political party. [3] Aside from Bertucci, other leaders of the party include Alfonso Campos, the party's Secretary-General, Jeickson Portillo, its National Coordinator, and Luis Adames, its Undersecretary. [4] [5]
On 21 February 2018, Javier Bertucci, an evangelical pastor who founded the Christian organization El Evangelio Cambia, [6] announced his candidacy in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election. [7] [8] Bertucci renounced his pastorship in compliance with Venezuelan electoral regulations, which state that presidential candidates must not be affiliated with any religious organizations. [9] [10] Early support for his campaign came from people who had previously known him due to his pastorship and establishment of the "Maranatha Venezuela" church. [11] On 28 February, a group of his supporters registered the Hope for Change (Spanish : Esperanza por El Cambio) political party with the CNE to help draw further support for his candidacy. [12] To gain further support among the poor, Hope for Change held soup kitchens, claiming that people wouldn't listen to speeches if they were starving. [13] [14]
On 21 September 2018, Alfonso Campos, the General Secretary of Hope for Change, announced that the party was running municipal election candidates in 335 municipalities, in addition to confirming a national tour by Javier Bertucci. [15] [16] On 6 October, Hope for Change announced that it had formed an alliance with COPEI, MAS, AP, CMC, and MOVEV. [17] [18] At a press conference in Caracas on 22 November, Bertucci announced that Hope for Change was running 4,430 candidates in the municipal elections. [19]
Bertucci received 1,015,895 votes in the presidential election, over 10% of the total votes, placing behind the incumbent Nicolás Maduro and Progressive Advance candidate Henri Falcón. [20] The Hope for Change candidate for the municipal election in the state of Bolívar won their election. [21] [22]