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.
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was a Venezuelan politician and military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period of forty-seven hours in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until 2012.
The Fifth Republic Movement was a socialist political party in Venezuela. It was founded in July 1997, following a national congress of the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement-200, to support the candidacy of Hugo Chávez, the former President of Venezuela, in the 1998 presidential election. The "Fifth Republic" refers to the fact that in 1997 the Republic of Venezuela was the fourth in Venezuelan history, and the Movement aimed to re-found the Republic through a constituent assembly. Following Chávez' 1998 election victory, this took place in 1999, leading to the 1999 Constitution of Venezuela.
Bolivarianism is a mix of panhispanic, socialist and nationalist-patriotic ideals named after Simón Bolívar, the 19th-century Venezuelan general and liberator from the Spanish monarchy then in abeyance, who led the struggle for independence throughout much of South America.
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.
Democratic Action is a Venezuelan social democratic and centre-left political party established in 1941. The party played an important role in the early years of Venezuelan democracy, leading the government during Venezuela's first democratic period (1945–1948). A decade of dictatorship under Marcos Pérez Jiménez followed, which saw AD excluded from power. With the advent of democracy in 1958, four Presidents of Venezuela came from Acción Democrática from the 1950s to the 1990s during the two-party period with COPEI.
Francisco Javier Arias Cárdenas is a Venezuelan politician and career military officer, and was the governor of Zulia state. He participated in Hugo Chávez's unsuccessful February 1992 coup attempt, being pardoned in 1994 by Rafael Caldera, along with the other conspirators. He was elected Governor of Zulia state in 1995 for the Radical Cause, and challenged Hugo Chávez for the presidency in 2000. He subsequently served as Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, and deputy to the National Assembly after the 2010 parliamentary elections.
Teodoro Petkoff Malec 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. Petkoff was elected as senator and ran for the presidency twice in the 1980s, being defeated both times. As Minister of Planning, he oversaw President Rafael Caldera's adoption of liberalization economic policies in the mid-1990s. 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. Petkoff launched the newspaper Tal Cual in 2000 and remained its editor until his death in 2018.
For Social Democracy, abbr.PODEMOS, is a political party in Venezuela. In the 2005 legislative elections the party won 15 out of 165 seats in the National Assembly.
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela is a socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2007. It was formed from a merger of some of the political and social forces that support the Bolivarian Revolution led by President Hugo Chávez.
The 2010 parliamentary election in Venezuela took place on 26 September 2010 to elect the 165 deputies to the National Assembly. Venezuelan opposition parties, which had boycotted the previous election thus allowing the governing Fifth Republic Movement (MVR) to gain a two-thirds super majority, participated in the election through the Coalition for Democratic Unity (MUD). In 2007 the Fifth Republic Movement dissolved and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela was formed as the leading government party. Nationally, the popular vote was split equally between PSUV and MUD, but PSUV won a majority of the first-past-the-post seats and consequently retained a substantial majority in the Assembly, although falling short of both two-thirds and three-fifths super majority marks.
Henri Falcón Fuentes is a Venezuelan politician, lawyer, and retired Bolivarian Army non-commissioned officer. He served as mayor for two consecutive terms of Barquisimeto, Iribarren Municipality from 2000 to 2008 and as Governor of Lara from 2008 until 2017. He was a candidate in the 2018 Venezuelan presidential election.
The Coordinadora Democrática was an umbrella group of Venezuelan political parties, civil associations and non-government organisations opposed to President Hugo Chávez. Founded on 5 July 2002, the organization negotiated with the government in November 2002 under the auspices of the Organization of American States Secretary General César Gaviria. The Coordinadora Democrática also helped to organize the 2002–2003 Venezuelan general strike and the 2004 recall referendum.
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.
Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 7 October 2012 to choose a president for a six-year term beginning in January 2013.
Independents for the National Community is a Venezuelan left-wing political party founded in 1995. Its headquarters are located in the city of Caracas.
Venezuelan Revolutionary Currents is a Venezuelan far-left political party that was officially founded in 2000, the party's secretary general is Ramses Reyes. CRV is currently a part of the GGP, an alliance of various left-wing political parties and social movements that support the Bolivarian Revolution promoted by former president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías. It is currently not authorized to participate in elections due to its legal problems.
Union Party was a Venezuelan centre-left political party founded in 2001 by Francisco Arias Cárdenas. It was dissolved in 2007 after merging with PSUV. Throughout its existence Union opposed and then supported the candidacy of Hugo Chávez on various occasions.
Emergent People is a Venezuelan centrist political party, founded on June 22, 1991 by Fernando Alvarez.
