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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 National Assembly is the legislature for Venezuela that was first elected in 2000. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who were elected by a "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based party-list proportional representation system. The number of seats is constant, each state and the Capital district elected three representatives plus the result of dividing the state population by 1.1% of the total population of the country. Three seats are reserved for representatives of Venezuela's indigenous peoples and elected separately by all citizens, not just those with indigenous backgrounds. For the 2010 to 2015 the number of seats was 165. All deputies serve five-year terms. The National Assembly meets in the Federal Legislative Palace in Venezuela's capital, Caracas.
The Supreme Justice Tribunal is the highest court of law in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and is the head of the judicial branch. As the independence of the Venezuelan judiciary under the regime of Nicolás Maduro is questioned, there have recently been many disputes as to whether this court is legitimate.
Elections in Venezuela are held at a national level for the President of Venezuela as head of state and head of government, and for a unicameral legislature. The President of Venezuela is elected for a six-year term by direct election plurality voting, and is eligible for re-election. The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) has 277 members (diputados), elected for five-year terms using a mixed-member majoritarian representation system. Elections also take place at state level and local level.
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.
The president of Venezuela, officially known as the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is the head of state and head of government in Venezuela. The president leads the National Executive of the Venezuelan government and is the commander-in-chief of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces. Presidential terms were set at six years with the adoption of the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela, and presidential term limits were removed in 2009.
Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro is a Venezuelan lawyer and politician. She is married to the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, making her the First Lady. Since 2015, she has also been a deputy in the National Assembly of Venezuela, of which she was president from 2006 to 2011, for her home state of Cojedes. In 2017, the Constituent National Assembly was founded, in which she is a member of the Presidential Commission.
Tareck Zaidan El Aissami Maddah is a Venezuelan politician, who served as the vice president of Venezuela from 2017 to 2018. He served as Minister of Industries and National Production since 14 June 2018, and as Minister of Petroleum from 27 April 2020 until 20 March 2023. He previously was Minister of the Interior and Justice from 2008 to 2012, Governor of Aragua from 2012 to 2017, and the vice president of Venezuela from 2017 to 2018. While holding that office, El Aissami faced allegations of participating in corruption, money laundering and drug trafficking. In 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) added El Aissami to the ICE Most Wanted List, listed by the Homeland Security Investigations unit. El Aissami, who was among the power brokers in Nicolás Maduro's government, resigned on 20 March 2023 during a corruption probe. He was arrested by the Venezuelan prosecutor's office on charges of treason, money laundering and criminal association.
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.
Henry Lisandro Ramos Allup is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer and former President of the National Assembly who was born in Valencia, Carabobo. He has been leader of the social democratic Democratic Action party, holding the position of Secretary-General.
Tamara Adrián is a Venezuelan politician, who was elected to the National Assembly of Venezuela in the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election. She is noted as the first openly transgender person elected to office in Venezuela, and only the second openly transgender member of a national legislature in the Western Hemisphere. Some early media coverage credited her as the first openly transgender member of a legislature in the Americas, but this was later corrected due to the election of Michelle Suárez Bértora to the Senate of Uruguay in 2014. In 2023 Tamara became the first openly transgender candidate in a presidential election.
Freddy Guevara is a Venezuelan politician. He was elected deputy to the Venezuelan National Assembly for Circuit 2 of the Miranda State representing the Democratic Unity Roundtable in the parliamentary elections of December 6, 2015. He has been a key figure of the opposition to Nicolás Maduro, Guevara was arrested in July 2021 charged with crimes against the state. The United States and others condemned the arrest as politically-motivated. In mid-August, he was freed as part of negotiations between the Maduro government and the Venezuelan opposition.
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.
Richard Miguel Mardo Mardo is a Venezuelan politician. He is the leader of the Justice First party in Aragua, as well as one of its deputy leaders, along with Carlos Ocariz. He was a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2016.
Luis Eduardo Parra Rivero is a Venezuelan politician who was in a dispute with Juan Guaidó for a year over who was the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela based on a vote on 5 January 2020.
On 23 January 2020, a fire was started in the Agrícola del Lago reed bed in Cagua, Aragua state, Venezuela. Eleven people were confirmed to have died as a result of the fire, all but two being minors.
Elvis Eduardo Hidrobo Amoroso is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer who currently serves as the President of the National Electoral Council since 24 August 2023. He previously served as Comptroller General of the Republic and held the presidency of the Republican Moral Council, also known as the Moral Power. In August 2017, he was elected as first and second vice president of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly and served until October 2017. He also served as a deputy to the National Assembly for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
Dinorah Figuera is a Venezuelan physician and politician. She is a deputy and president of the IV National Assembly of Venezuela in exile in Spain.
Liz Carolina Jaramillo De Miranda is a Venezuelan politician, currently an alternate deputy of the National Assembly for the Aragua state.
Milagro Valero is a Venezuelan politician who served as a deputy of the National Assembly the for Mérida state and the Justice First party.
References
- 1 2 "Dip. Karin Salanova". Transparencia Venezuela. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ↑ "Karin Salanova". Poderopedia Venezuela. Retrieved 2021-04-07.