Politics of Venezuela

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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. [1] [2] [3] [4] 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. [1] [2] [5] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Venezuela was in 2023 the third least electoral democratic country in Latin America. [3] [4]

Contents

After the victory of socialist populist Hugo Chávez in the 1998 presidential election, Venezuela gradually underwent democratic backsliding before transitioning to an authoritarian system of government where political and civil rights are not protected, and elections are not free and fair. [6] [1] [5] [7] [8] [9] Under Chávez's rule and later under the rule of his successor Nicolás Maduro, power has been concentrated in the hands of the executive, institutional checks and balances have been undermined, independent media have been repressed, and opposition forces have been marginalized in governing institutions, such as congress, courts, oversight agencies, the state-owned petroleum company (PDVSA), and the military. [1] [2] [10] [7]

Politics are polarized between supporters of President Nicolás Maduro, organized as the United Socialist Party (PSUV) and the Great Patriotic Pole, and several opposition parties. Opposition parties and opposition candidates have regularly been banned from contesting elections. [1] At other times, opposition parties have boycotted national elections, citing their undemocratic nature. [1]

The PSUV was created in 2007, uniting a number of smaller parties supporting Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution with Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement. PSUV and its forerunners have held the presidency since 1998, and the legislature during most of that time. The Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD), created in 2008, unites much of the opposition (A New Era (UNT), Project Venezuela, Justice First, Movement for Socialism (Venezuela) and others). Hugo Chávez, the central figure of the Venezuelan political landscape since his election to the Presidency in 1998 as a political outsider, died in office in early 2013, and was succeeded by Maduro (initially as interim President, before narrowly winning the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election).

Parties and leaders

National Assembly building PFLCaracas.jpg
National Assembly building

Governing party

United Socialist Party of Venezuela or PSUV – (Nicolás Maduro), partially recognized. Up to 60 countries, including United States and the European Union have recognized Juan Guaidó (MUD) as the President of Venezuela. As of 2021, the European Union no longer recognizes Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela. [11]

Non-governing parties

History

Venezuelan politics was characterized by military rule for much of its post-independence history. [13] From independence until 1956, Venezuela had 24 constitutions. [13] These constitutions were frequently established by winners after successful revolts. [13]

Romulo Gallegos's election as president in 1947 made him the first freely elected president in Venezuela's history. [13] He was removed from power by military officers in the 1948 Venezuelan coup. [13]

1958–1999

Miraflores Palace, seat of the executive power Miraflores 2010.JPG
Miraflores Palace, seat of the executive power

Background to the current political landscapes is the development of democracy in Venezuela during the twentieth century, in which Democratic Action (ADx or Acción Democrática in Spanish, founded in 1941) and its predecessors played an important role in the early years. Democratic Action led the government during Venezuela's first democratic period (1945–1948). After an intervening decade of dictatorship (1948–1958) and the fall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez [14] saw ADx excluded from power, four Venezuelan presidents came from Democratic Action from the 1960s to the 1990s. This period, known as the "Fourth Republic", is marked by the development of the 1958 Punto Fijo Pact between the major parties (originally including the Democratic Republican Union, which later dwindled in significance).[ citation needed ] [15] [16]

By the end of the 1990s, however, the now two-party system's credibility was almost nonexistent. [14] This was mostly because of the corruption and poverty that Venezuelans experienced as oil wealth poured in during the 1970s and the debt crisis developed during the 1980s. Democratic Action's last president (Carlos Andrés Pérez) was impeached for corruption in 1993 and spent two years under house arrest as a result. The other main traditional party Copei, provided two Venezuelan presidents (Rafael Caldera, 1969–1974, and Luis Herrera Campins, 1979–1983). Confidence in the traditional parties collapsed enough that Rafael Caldera won the 1993 presidential election with about 30% of the vote, representing a new electoral coalition National Convergence. By 1998, support for Democratic Action and COPEI had fallen still further, and Hugo Chávez, a political outsider, won the 1998 election. [17] [18]

1999–2013

Chávez launched what he called the "Bolivarian Revolution" and fulfilled an election promise by calling a Constituent Assembly in 1999, which drafted the new Constitution of Venezuela. Chávez was granted executive power by the National Assembly to rule by decree multiple times throughout his tenure, [19] [20] [21] passing hundreds of laws. Chávez ruled Venezuela by decree in 2000, [22] 2001, [22] 2004, [23] 2005, [23] 2006, [23] 2007, [24] 2008, [22] [24] 2010, [22] [25] 2011 [22] [25] and 2012. [22] [25] The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) was created in 2007, uniting a number of smaller parties supporting Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution with Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement. The Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD), created in 2008, united much of the opposition (A New Era (UNT), Project Venezuela, Justice First, Movement for Socialism (Venezuela) and others). In 2008, the government expelled the US-based Human Rights Watch, [26] which was criticizing the government's Human rights record. Hugo Chávez, the central figure of the Venezuelan political landscape since his election to the presidency in 1998 as a political outsider, died in office in early 2013 after a long struggle with cancer. Nearing his death, Chávez expressed his intention that his vice president would succeed him. [27] Chavez was succeeded by Nicolás Maduro, his vice president, initially as interim President, before he narrowly won the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election.[ citation needed ]

2013–Present

Nicolás Maduro has been president of Venezuela from 2013 to the present. His rule has been marked by a continuation of Bolivarian socialist populist policies (at least until 2020), but also by a severe economic crisis -- hyperinflation (53,798,500% between 2016 and April 2019), [28] escalating hunger, [29] disease, crime and mortality rates, [30] and mass emigration (almost 5 million from the country as of 2019). [31] Extrajudicial killings of opposition by government forces are reported (by the United Nations) to include 6800 deaths as of 2019. [32]

The crisis has been variously blamed on low oil prices in early 2015; [33] on an "economic war" on Venezuelan socialism [34] waged by international sanctions, and the country's business elite; [35] and on "years of economic mismanagement, and corruption", [35] including a lack of maintenance and investment in oil production. [30]

2013

On 14 April 2013 elections were held between Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles Radonski, opposition leader and co founder of the political party, Primero Justicia. The Venezuelan election agency announced that Maduro won with 50.8 percent of the vote, the smallest presidential win margin since the 1968 election. [36] Opposition forces said that Henrique Capriles Radonski actually won by close to 300,000 votes and proposed evidence of voter fraud. [36] Capriles demanded a recount that in June reaffirmed Maduro as the victor. These results sparked subsequent demonstrations and protests by those who said the recount process was also illegitimate. [37] Maduro and his government responded with suppression of the opposition that resulted in hundreds of arrests, that Maduro claimed to be in defense of a coup he was facing. [38]

Maduro attempted to continue the Chavismo policies. Like Chávez, Nicolás Maduro has ruled by decree multiple times since he was elected in April 2013. President Maduro has ruled Venezuela by decree for the majority of the period from 19 November 2013 [39] through 2017. [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] Maduro has not achieved the same level of popularity that Chávez had during his presidency, demonstrated by the narrow early presidential election win. Many attribute Maduro's failure to continue the same populism model successfully to his lack of charisma that Chávez capitalized on. Chávez's opposition reported to still have large love and respect for Chávez during his presidency, Eric Olsen, deputy director of the Latin American Program at the Wilson Center reports. [45] Olsen notes that this was not the same case with Maduro, who clearly lacks the same amount of captivating characteristics. [45]

2015

2015 was a strong year for the MUD opposition, taking two-thirds of the congressional sets, a super majority. This was the first time in 16 years that PSUV did not have the majority in congress and this was not due to low voter turnout, as it was at 74.3%. [46] Henrique Capriles a former MUD presidential candidate and the opposition coalition leader, Jesus Torrealba marked this as a change in the nation's history encouraging celebration with Torrealba stating, "Venezuela wanted a change and that change came. A new majority expressed itself and sent a clear and resounding message." [46] Maduro stated in his televised response, "We have come with our morality and our ethics to recognize these adverse results, to accept them and to tell our Venezuela, The Constitution and democracy have triumphed", and later said "In Venezuela the opposition has not won ... For now, a counterrevolution that is at our doorstep has won". [47]

2017

The strong performance by the opposition led to the reduction of the legislative powers due to the judiciary's increased scope and politicization. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), controlled by the PSUV, invalidated three deputies' elections from the opposition. When this ruling was not accepted by the Assembly, its powers were stripped. [48] By 2017, the old legislative body was dismissed and transformed into the New Constituent National Assembly. [49] This was similar to the Constituent Assembly in 1999, having power to change the constitution and dismantle pre-existing officials and/or the bodies themselves. [50] The members of the Constituent Assembly were chosen in July 2017, during elections that were largely boycotted by the opposition, with accusations of illegitimacy. [49]

2020

In 2020, news reports described a loosening of many socialist/redistributive economic policies—price and currency controls, stringent labor laws—by the Maduro government, along with an rapprochement with members of the capitalist community—especially Lorenzo Mendoza of the Empresas Polar conglomerate who is no longer denounced as a "thief," a "parasite" and a "traitor". Changes such as the return of agricultural land and "dozens of companies" to private management have allowed the government to survive economic sanctions (though economic production and employment is still greatly reduced), and have proceeded in exchange for an abandonment of political opposition by Mendoza. [51] Another result of the economic liberalization is that erstwhile socialist allies of Maduro's government who began to protest corruption and the "extravagant lives flaunted by the government's cronies in supermarkets stocked with expensive imports and luxury car showrooms", have become victims to the same security apparatus that have attacked Maduro's opponents on the right—they have been denounced as traitors, arrested (leaders of the Communist and Tupamaro parties), beaten and sometimes assassinated (the fate of radio host José Carmelo Bislick). [52]

Miscellaneous

Venezuela abolished the death penalty in 1863, making it the country where this practice has been outlawed the longest. [53] [54]

There is a history of tension between church and state in the country. The Catholic Church has accused Chavez of concentrating power in his own hands. In 2009, in the Catholic Church's Easter address to the nation, the bishops said the country's democracy was in "serious danger of collapse." [55]

Elections

Venezuela elects at a national level the President of Venezuela as head of state and head of government and a unicameral federal legislature. The President of Venezuela is elected for a six-year term by direct election plurality voting and is eligible for re-election since the 2009 Venezuelan constitutional referendum) The National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional) has 165 members (diputados), elected for five-year terms. Elections also take place at state level and local level.

On 25 April 2023, representatives from 19 nations, including the European Union, attended a conference that was intended to rekindle negotiations between Nicolás Maduro's government in Venezuela and the opposition political parties, but it had no noticeable impact.

Latest elections

Most recent elections:[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Assembly of Venezuela</span> Parliament of Venezuela

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in Venezuela</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Action (Venezuela)</span> Political party in Venezuela

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.

The People's Electoral Movement is a left-wing political party in Venezuela, founded in 1967 by Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa.

Chavismo, also known in English as Chavism or Chavezism, is a left-wing populist political ideology based on the ideas, programs and government style associated with the Venezuelan President between 1999 and 2013 Hugo Chávez that combines elements of democratic socialism, socialist patriotism, Bolivarianism, and Latin American integration. People who supported Hugo Chávez and Chavismo are known as Chavistas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henrique Capriles</span> Venezuelan politician (born 1972)

Henrique Capriles Radonski is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer, who served as the 36th Governor of Miranda from 2008 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolás Maduro</span> President of Venezuela since 2013

Nicolás Maduro Moros is a Venezuelan politician who has served as the 53rd president of Venezuela since 2013. Previously, he was the 24th vice president of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013, the minister of foreign affairs from 2006 to 2012, and the 3rd president of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2005 to 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Socialist Party of Venezuela</span> Socialist political party in Venezuela

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cilia Flores</span> Venezuelan politician and First Lady

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Falcón</span> Venezuelan politician

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Unity Roundtable</span> Political coalition of Venezuelan opposition parties

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.

Popular Will is a political party in Venezuela founded by former Mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo López, who is its national co-ordinator. The party previously held 14 out of 167 seats in the Venezuelan National Assembly, the country's parliament, and is a member of the Democratic Unity Roundtable, the electoral coalition that held a plurality in the National Assembly between 2015 and 2020. The party describes itself as progressive and social-democratic, and was admitted into the Socialist International in December 2014. The party was formed in reaction to complaints of infringements of individual freedom and human rights on the part of the government of the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro. The party attempts to bring together Venezuelans of various backgrounds who consider Chavismo oppressive and authoritarian. Popular Will self-identifies itself as "a pluralist and democratic movement" that is committed to "progress", which it defines as the realization of "the social, economic, political, and human rights of every Venezuelan." The party says its "fundamental pillars" are progress, democracy, and social action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Venezuelan presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 14 April 2013 following the death of President Hugo Chávez on 5 March 2013. Nicolás Maduro—who had assumed the role of acting president since Chávez's death—was declared winner with a narrow victory over his opponent Henrique Capriles, the Governor of Miranda. Capriles had run in the previous election less than a year before, losing to Chávez by an 11-point margin. This time the margin of victory was much smaller, and thus became the closest presidential election of the country since the 1968 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election</span>

Parliamentary elections were held in Venezuela on 6 December 2015 to elect the 164 deputies and three indigenous representatives of the National Assembly. They were the fourth parliamentary elections to take place after the 1999 constitution, which abolished the bicameral system in favour of a unicameral parliament, and the first to take place after the death of President Hugo Chávez. Despite predictions from the opposition of a possible last-minute cancellation, the elections took place as scheduled, with the majority of polls showing the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) holding a wide lead over the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its wider alliance, the Great Patriotic Pole (GPP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2018 Venezuelan presidential election</span>

Presidential elections were held in Venezuela on 20 May 2018, with incumbent Nicolás Maduro being declared re-elected for a second six-year term. The original electoral date was scheduled for December 2018 but was subsequently pulled ahead to 22 April before being pushed back to 20 May. Some analysts described the poll as a sham election, as many prominent opposition parties had been barred from participating in it. The elections had the lowest voter turnout in Venezuela's democratic era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election</span>

Constituent Assembly elections were held in Venezuela on 30 July 2017 to elect the members of the 2017 Constituent National Assembly. Unlike the 1999 Constituent National Assembly, which was assembled following a referendum, the 2017 election was convened by the presidential decree of President Nicolás Maduro. Smartmatic, the company which provided the voting machines, stated that the results were tampered with by the CNE, and that the turnout was off by at least one million votes.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Venezuelan regional elections</span> Local elections in Venezuela

Regional and municipal elections were held in Venezuela on 21 November 2021. In the elections, all executive and legislative positions of the 23 federal entities, as well as that of the 335 municipalities of the country, were renewed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venezuelan opposition</span> Opposition to Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro

Venezuelan opposition to the Chavista governments of former President Hugo Chávez and current President Nicolás Maduro, commonly referred to as the Venezuelan opposition, or sometimes, anti-Chavismo, is a political umbrella term used to describe political, social and religious movements that have opposed Chavismo, and the associated Bolivarian Revolution political process since 2 February 1999.

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