The politics of Venezuela are conducted under what is nominally a federal presidential republic,but is in practice an authoritarian system of government. Prior to the early 1990s,Venezuela was considered an unusually long-standing and stable liberal democracy in Latin America,having transitioned to democracy in 1958. According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Venezuela was in 2023 the third least electoral democratic country in Latin America.
The Justice First is a centre-right political party in Venezuela. Founded in 1992 as a civil association,it became a political party in 2000. Henrique Capriles was the candidate of the party in 2013 Venezuelan presidential election.
Manuel Antonio Rosales Guerrero is a Venezuelan educator and politician,current governor of Zulia. He was the most prominent Venezuelan opposition candidate in the 2006 presidential election,losing to incumbent Hugo Chávez. He served as a congressman,mayor,and governor,but in April 2009,stepped down as Mayor of Maracaibo when he was charged with corruption in Venezuela and fled to Peru. Rosales denies the charges,and was granted political asylum in Peru. He was the presidential candidate for Un Nuevo Tiempo in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election.
Regional elections were held in Venezuela on 23 November 2008 to choose 22 governors and 2 metropolitan mayors. The candidates were selected for a term beginning in 2008 and ending in 2012,when the next regional elections will be held. The 2008 regional elections were the second during the government of Hugo Chávez Frías and the first since he founded the United Socialist Party.
Oswaldo Álvarez Paz is a Venezuelan politician. He was born in Maracaibo,Zulia and graduated in law from the University of Zulia. He was a Member of the Republic's Congress for over 20 years,president of the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies and participated/directed the most important commissions of the Venezuelan Parliament.
The Democratic Unity Roundtable was a catch-all electoral coalition of Venezuelan political parties formed in January 2008 to unify the opposition to President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela in the 2010 Venezuelan parliamentary election. A previous opposition umbrella group,the Coordinadora Democrática,had collapsed after the failure of the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum.
Juan Requesens Martínez is a deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly,elected in 2015 and sworn in on 5 January 2016. He was a student leader at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV),and a leader of student opposition protesters during the 2014 Venezuelan protests. He led marches opposing the Government of Venezuela under President Nicolás Maduro,seeking "to turn the student rebellion into a broader social movement".
The following lists events in the year 2017 in Venezuela.
María Josefina Bolívar is a Venezuelan politician and perennial candidate. She was presidential candidate twice for the United Democratic Party for Peace and Freedom (PDUPL) in the presidential elections of 2012 and 2013. She also ran for the same party in the regional elections of 2012 and was candidate for the mayoralty of Maracaibo in the municipal elections of 2013. In 2015 she was nominated as candidate for the 4th circuit of Zulia State in the parliamentary elections,and in 2017 she stood as candidate for the Constituent National Assembly.
Parliamentary elections were held in Venezuela on 6 December 2020. Aside from the 167 deputies of the National Assembly who are eligible to be re-elected,the new National Electoral Council president announced that the assembly would increase by 110 seats,for a total of 277 deputies to be elected.
Tomás Ignacio Guanipa Villalobos is a Venezuelan administrator and politician who served as a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela and is the current leader of the Justice First party.
An energy collapse in the state of Zulia,Venezuela occurred as a result of the country's ongoing general crisis,and it is the largest of its kind in the history of the state. With previous events in 2015 and 2016,the collapse intensified in 2017,when in September an alleged theft of cables left the city of Maracaibo and its surroundings without electricity. Since then long and short-term blackouts have been reported,which also cause the suspension of water supply,failures in cable television,telephone coverage and Internet access,among other services,as well as difficulty conducting business transactions,caused by the scarcity of banknotes and the dependence on the large-scale use of the point of sale terminals as well as electronic payments that are deficient in the absence of electricity and the Internet,resulting in closing of establishments,absence of work,damage of food and electrical appliances,the decrease in quality of life,among other factors,which added to the high temperatures suffered by citizens,affect the normal development of the population. Authorities such as the national government and the government of Zulia have attributed these failures to an alleged sabotage,but the opposition and experts denounce that it is due to lack of maintenance,also arguing that only less than half of what is consumed regularly is produced,reason for which there is "cargo administration" (rationing). The National Assembly of Venezuela,of opposition majority,declared the region in a state of electrical emergency. The service has also been interrupted but to a lesser extent in other states such as Bolívar,Carabobo,Falcón,Mérida,Miranda,Nueva Esparta,Táchira,Vargas and the country's capital Caracas.
Guillermo Trujillo Durán was a Venezuelan poet and politician. He is also remembered for his work in journalism and film,alongside his brother Manuel Trujillo Durán. He worked as editor for several Maracaibo-based publications and published some collections of poetry. In politics,he first served in the government of Zulia before entering the National Assembly,where he was Vice-President on two occasions.
The 2020 Venezuelan National Assembly Delegated Committee election was to be held in the ordinary session of the National Assembly on 5 January,in which 160 deputies were to elect the legislature's board of directors for the year 2020–21:the president,the first and second vice presidents,the secretary and the deputy secretary. It was the last such election of the IV National Assembly.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Venezuela was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first two cases in Venezuela were confirmed on 13 March 2020;the first death was reported on 26 March. However,the first record of a patient claiming to have symptoms of coronavirus disease dates back to 29 February 2020,with government officials suspecting that the first person carrying the virus could have entered the country as early as 25 February.
Omar JoséPrieto Fernández,is a Venezuelan economist and politician who was governor of Zulia from 2017 to 2021. He was mayor of San Francisco,Zulia,for two consecutive periods.
The Democratic Alliance was a political coalition created to face the government of Nicolás Maduro in the 2020 Venezuelan parliamentary election and grouped in the National Assembly. It is made up of Hope for Change,Cambiemos and Progressive Advance parties of the predecessor coalition Agreement for Change,in addition to the intervened parties Democratic Action and Copei,and the later incorporated Primero Venezuela,United Venezuela,Ecological Movement,Unidad Vision Venezuela,Country Commitment and the also intervened Popular Will.
Desiree Barboza is a Venezuelan politician,currently an alternate deputy of the National Assembly for the Zulia state.
Dignora Hernández is a Venezuelan politician,alternate deputy of the National Assembly for the Monagas state and the Cuentas Claras party.
