The Organization of American States, or the OAS or OEA, is an international organization that was founded on 30 April 1948 for the purposes of solidarity and co-operation among its member states within the Western Hemisphere. Headquartered in the US capital, Washington, DC, the OAS has 35 members, which are independent states in the Americas. During the Cold War, the United States hoped the OAS would be a bulwark against the spread of communism. Since the 1990s, the organization has focused on election monitoring. The head of the OAS is the Secretary General; the incumbent is Uruguayan Luis Almagro.
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.
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 165 members (diputados), elected for five-year terms using a mixed member majoritarian system. Elections also take place at state level and local level.
United States–Venezuela relations refers to the bilateral relationship between the United States and Venezuela. Relations have traditionally been characterized by an important trade and investment relationship as well as cooperation in combating the production and transit of illegal drugs. As of 23 January 2019, the United States and Venezuela have no formal diplomatic ties, but continue to have relations under Juan Guaidó, who serves as disputed interim president recognized by around 54 countries, including the United States.
Ann Louise Wagner is an American politician and diplomat serving as the U.S. Representative for Missouri's 2nd congressional district since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, she was the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from 2005 to 2009.
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.
Israeli–Venezuelan relations refer to foreign relations between the State of Israel and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Both countries have no formal relations since 2009 but since the 2019 presidential crisis, self-declared interim president Juan Guaidó is currently under the process to restore diplomatic relations between the two countries. Canada serves as Israel's protecting power in Venezuela through its embassy in Caracas, while Spain serves as Venezuela's protecting power in Israel through its embassy in Tel Aviv.
Nicolás Maduro Moros better known internationally as Nicolás Maduro, is a Venezuelan politician and president of Venezuela since 2013, with his presidency under dispute since 2019.
The Democratic Unity Roundtable is 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.
Under the rule of President Hugo Chávez who was elected President of Venezuela in 1998, relations between Israel and Venezuela rapidly deteriorated as Venezuela strongly supported the rights of the Palestinians and condemned Israeli actions, twice expelling the Israeli ambassador from Venezuela. Venezuela officially recognized the State of Palestine and established diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority on 27 April 2009.
All 35 independent nations of the Americas are member states of the Organization of American States (OAS).
Julián Isaías Rodríguez Díaz is a Venezuelan politician, diplomat and lawyer. He was appointed Vice President of Venezuela on 29 January 2000 by Hugo Chávez, and served in the post until 26 December 2000.
Snap 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 Radonski, 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.
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.
Samuel Reinaldo Moncada Acosta is a Venezuelan historian, politician and diplomat currently serving as Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the United Nations since 2017 and formerly served as Alternate Representative of Venezuela to the Organization of American States from 2017 to 2019.
Freddy Guevara is a Venezuelan political leader with a major in Communication from Andrés Bello Catholic University and a graduate certificate in Public Policy. 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.
The Lima Group is a multilateral body that was established following the Lima Declaration on 8 August 2017 in the Peruvian capital of Lima, where representatives of 12 countries met in order to establish a peaceful exit to the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.
Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez is a Venezuelan politician, a former member of the social-democratic Popular Will party, federal deputy to the National Assembly representing the state of Vargas. On 23 January 2019, Guaidó and the National Assembly declared he was acting President of Venezuela, starting the Venezuelan presidential crisis by challenging Nicolás Maduro's presidency.
Gustavo Tarre Briceño is a Venezuelan politician, lawyer, author, professor of constitutional law and politic science, and representative to the Organization of American States (OAS).
Isabel Brilhante Pedrosa is a Portuguese diplomat, who serves as the European Union Ambassador to Venezuela. She has been the ambassador since February 2018.
