Politics of Venezuela

Venezuela has a hegemonic party system, dominated by the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) along with other parties. The PSUV was created in 2007, uniting a series of smaller parties that supported Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution with Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement. The PSUV and its predecessors have held the presidency and the National Assembly since 1998. The opposition coalition of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), created in 2008, brings together much of the opposition: Democratic Action, Popular Will, A New Time and First Justice,. Hugo Chávez, a central figure in 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 Nicolás Maduro (initially as Interim President, before narrowly winning the 2013 Venezuelan presidential election). Venezuela has a presidential government. The Economist Intelligence Unit called Venezuela an "authoritarian regime" in 2020, with the lowest score among the countries of the Americas.

Public Powers

The Venezuelan State is divided into 5 powers, the Legislative, Executive, Judicial, Citizen and Electoral powers; each one of the branches of the Public Power has its own functions, but the organs to which its exercise is incumbent will collaborate among themselves in the realization of the aims of the State. The National Public Power is made up of the organs and entities of the State with national competence that are framed within the Constitution of the Republic.

The national authorities of the State reside in Caracas, Capital District, since according to the National Constitution, it is the seat of the organs of the National Public Power. The Public Administration is at the service of citizens and is based on the principles of honesty, participation, speed, effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, accountability and responsibility, as required by Article 141 of the Constitution of the Republic.

• Headquarters of the main institutions exercising the different powers of the State
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  Federal Legislative Palace, seat of Parliament since 1873. Headquarters of the legislature

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  Palacio de Miraflores, headquarters of the National Executive since 1900. Headquarters of the executive branch.

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  Palace of the Supreme Court of Justice, seat of the highest court since 1987. Headquarters of the judiciary.

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  Main headquarters of the National Electoral Council. Headquarters of electoral power.

Presidential Executive Branch

The national government is exercised by the body of the President of the Republic, the Executive Vice President, the Ministers and other officials established by the Constitution of the Republic and the law. The President of the Republic is elected by direct, secret and universal non-suffrage for a 6-year term, with the possibility of being re-elected for new periods, in accordance with Amendment No. 1 of the National Constitution.

The President of the Republic is the Head of State, Head of the National Executive Power, Commander-in-Chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, and directs the foreign relations of the Republic. The Executive Vice President is a direct and immediate collaborator of the President. He coordinates the relations of the National Executive with the National Assembly, presides over the Federal Government Council and fills in for the temporary absences of the President of the Republic. The ministers are direct organs of the president, and meeting with him and the vice president, make up the Council of Ministers. The Attorney General of the Republic attends, with the right to speak, the meetings of the Council of Ministers. Additionally, the president can convene the Council of State, being a superior consultation body of the Government and the National Public Administration to recommend policies of national interest in matters of special importance.

Legislative Branch

It is exercised by the National Assembly of Venezuela at the federal level, by the Legislative Councils at the state level and by the Municipal Councils and Cabildos Distribute them in local entities.

Judicial Branch

The highest jurisdictional body in all orders is the Supreme Court of Justice and the other courts determined by law. These, together with the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Public Defender, criminal investigation bodies, justice auxiliaries and officials, the prison system, alternative means of justice, the citizens who participate in the administration of justice in accordance with the law and the lawyers authorized to practice, make up the Justice System.

Citizen Power

The highest instance of citizen power is exercised by the body of the Republican Moral Council, made up of the Public Ministry, the Comptroller General of the Republic, and the Ombudsman. Any of the highest authorities of the bodies that make up this Power can be elected president of the Republican Moral Council for periods of one year, re-eligible. Among its functions are to prevent, investigate and punish acts that violate public ethics and administrative morality, ensure the proper use of public assets and pre-select candidates for magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice. The Public Ministry is in charge of guaranteeing respect for constitutional rights and guarantees in judicial processes. It is under the direction and responsibility of the Attorney General of the Republic, appointed by the National Assembly for a period of seven years. The Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic is the body for the control, surveillance and supervision of income, expenses, public assets and national assets, as well as the operations related to them. It is under the direction and responsibility of the Comptroller General of the Republic, appointed by the National Assembly for a period of seven years. The Ombudsman's Office is in charge of promoting, defending and monitoring the rights and guarantees established in the Constitution of the Republic and in international treaties on human rights, in addition to the legitimate, collective or diffuse interests of citizens. It is under the direction and responsibility of the Ombudsman, who is appointed for a single period of seven years.

Electoral Power

The Electoral Power is exercised by the body of the National Electoral Council, which has as subordinate bodies: the National Electoral Board, the Civil and Electoral Registry Commission and the Political Participation and Financing Commission. Its objective is to regulate and manage electoral processes as well as the application of the personalization of suffrage and proportional representation. The CNE maintains, organizes, directs and supervises the Civil and Electoral Registry. The [Venezuelan Constitution of 1999 incorporates the figure of the [recall referendum]] for all popularly elected positions, which can be submitted to a new election halfway through the term, as an innovative way of allowing a political decision of the citizenry. about elected officials.

At the regional level, the Electoral Power is exercised by the regional and local boards.

Suffrage in Venezuela is Universal, and can be exercised from the age of 18.

Leaders and political parties

The organization that can properly be called the first Venezuelan political party is the Liberal Party, created by Tomás Lander and Antonio Leocadio Guzmán in 1840. Emerged as a response to the ruling Conservative Party, both would vie for power throughout the century XIX. Derivative parties would emerge from these, later dissolved by the Gomez dictatorship. In the subsequent democratic stage, some of the most important parties have emerged on the national scene, such as the Unión Republicana Democrática (URD, d. 1945), the Electoral Movement of the People (MEP, d. 1967), La Causa R (d. 1971), among others.

In the current political life of the country, those that are especially relevant are the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which is the government party; Acción Democrática (AD), also of a social democratic tendency, founded in 1941 by former presidents Rómulo Gallegos and Rómulo Betancourt, one of the two traditional parties before the arrival of Chavismo; Primero Justicia (PJ), a national since 2003 with a humanist tendency led by the two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski; Popular Will (VP) at the initiative of Leopoldo López in 2009 of a social democratic tendency and whose militant Juan Guaidó is the current opposition leader, president of the National Assembly and partially recognized by foreign governments as the president in charge of the Republic after having sworn in on January 23, 2019; A New Time (UNT) of social democratic ideology formed as a national party in 2007 by the former presidential candidate and former governor of the state of Zulia Manuel Rosales; these four center-left opposition parties represent the so-called "G-4" Due to the number of sympathizers and political machinery they have, together they represent the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition, which has currently passed to the Free Venezuela Broad Front (FAVL); The rest of the relevant parties are the La Causa Radical party, a center-left trade unionist party founded by the deceased communist guerrilla Alfredo Maneiro and whose leader is the former presidential candidate Andrés Velásquez, said party is in agreement with the FAVL; the liberal-leaning Vente Venezuela (VV) party founded in 2012 by its leader and former deputy María Corina Machado, which represents the radical wing of the opposition, positioning itself on the political right of the political spectrum, integrating the centrist coalition I am Venezuela; Other parties are the Independent Electoral Political Organization Committee (COPEI), of a Social Christian nature, the second of the two old traditional parties, founded in 1946 by former President Rafael Caldera; the political party EL Cambio founded in 2018 by the Christian pastor and former presidential candidate Javier Bertucci; the Avanzada Progresista (AP) party founded in 2012 by former presidential candidate Henri Falcón; the political formation Cambiemos Movimiento Ciudadano (CAMBIEMOS) of a progressive tendency founded in 2018 by the Social Democratic leader Timoteo Zambrano, these last two parties with the intermittent support of COPEI make up the former opposition coalition Coalition for Change (CPC).

Some parties of importance at the regional level are Proyecto Carabobo (founded in 1997 with Proyecto Venezuela), the neo-Spartan Movimiento Regional de Avanzada (MRA, d. 2002), and the United Movement of Indigenous Afro-descendants (d. 1997), among others.

A particularity of the Venezuelan partisan system is the dispersion of the political groups that pass from the right to the left, the splits are the predominant model, the most significant cases have been those presented in the following table.

Foreign relations

Diplomatic missions of Venezuela.

Visas from Venezuela.

Map of 1896 showing the highest British aspirations for Guayana Estequiba.

Venezuelan foreign policy has varied according to the nature of its government. Since the country suffered a long period of internal turbulence in its first years as an independent nation, it was unable to outline a concrete international policy, but focused on the demarcation of boundaries. In the early 20th century, it had difficult relations with European powers and the United States over foreign debt, and it remained neutral during World War II until it sided with the Allies. In the 1950s, Venezuela maintained close ties with existing dictatorships in Latin America at the time, and with the United States. The restoration of the democratic system of government in 1958 generated significant changes in the foreign policy of Venezuela, being framed within the Constitution of 1961 and concretizing in three basic guidelines: democracy, oil and active international presence. Under the Betancourt Doctrine, it only recognized democratic governments. In the 1980s, together with other countries, it joined the Contadora Group, to seek peace in the armed conflicts in Central America.

According to Article 153 of the Constitution, Venezuela intends to promote Latin American and Caribbean integration, favoring relations with Latin America. In recent times, the Venezuelan government has approached governments with a clear leftist and anti-imperialist line, while mishaps and estrangements have arisen in diplomatic relations with Colombia, Mexico and the United States, although without significantly affecting the commercial relations that prevail. Venezuela has held a seat on the UN Security Council four times, in the periods from 1962 to 1963, from 1977 to 1978, from 1986 to 1987, and from 1992 to 1993. In 2006, it ran once again without get elected.

Venezuela has a long history of territorial claims with Guyana and Colombia. The eastern limits of the country with Guyana, traced by the Paris Award of 1899 (declared null and void by Venezuela), go from Mount Roraima to Punta Playa in the Atlantic Ocean. However, Venezuela claims the territory known as Guayana Esequiba, which would cover from the border between the two countries to the Essequibo River, what today are regions 1 (Barima-Waini), 2 (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 7 (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 8 (Potaro-Siparuni), 10 (Alto Takutu-Alto Essequibo) and the western zone of 5 (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), based on the 1966 Geneva Agreement, signed with the United Kingdom.

In addition, it maintains a dispute with Colombia over the sovereignty of the Gulf of Venezuela. The dispute, which dates back to the time of the dissolution of Gran Colombia, is believed to be motivated by the presence of hydrocarbons in the Gulf, and which in turn led to the outbreak of the Caldas Corvette Crisis in 1987. The problem was addressed again in 2007, when it was agreed to continue negotiations between the two parties.

Venezuela has made contributions with military, police or observer personnel for the United Nations peacekeeping missions operating in Central America (ONUCA), Iraq and Kuwait (UNIKOM), El Salvador (ONUSAL), Western Sahara (MINURSO), India and Pakistan (UNIPOM), Croatia-Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNPROFOR), and Guatemala (MINUGUA).

Venezuela belongs to ABINIA, UNHCR, AEC, ALADI, ALBA, ASALE, BDC, IDB, BIRD, CAF, CARICOM, CCI, CD, CELAC, ECLAC, CIN, CFI, CLAD, CNUCYD, IOC, CPA, CPI, Red Cross, CSI, FAO, IFAD, FIFA, FLAR, IMF, WSF, G-15, G-24, G-77, Rio Group, IFRC, Intelsat, Interpol, ISO, JID, Mercosur, MPNA, ICAO, OEA, OEI, IHO, IAEA, IOM, OISS, ILO, OITMS, OLADE, WCO, WTO, MIGA, IMO, WMO, UNWTO, WHO, WIPO, UN, UNIDO, OPANAL, OPCW, OPEC, ACTO, OTI, Petrocaribe, SELA, Unasur, Unesco, UIP, UIT, Latin Union and UPU.