Punto Fijo Pact
The Punto Fijo Pact was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of Venezuela's three main political parties in 1958, Acción Democrática, COPEI and Unión Republicana Democrática, for the acceptance of the 1958 presidential elections, and the preservation of the rising democratic regime.
Origins
The term originates from Punto Fijo, Rafael Caldera's house at the time in Caracas, where representatives of the Democratic Republican Union (URD), Social Christian (COPEI) and Democratic Action (Acción Democrática AD) parties signed a pact that its adherents claimed was aimed at preserving Venezuelan democracy by respecting elections by having the winners of the elections consider including members of the signing parties and others to positions of power in bids for national unity governments and by having a basic shared program of government.[1]
According to others, the pact bound the parties to limit Venezuela's political system to an exclusive competition between two parties.[2] Some claim that the accord allowed the rising Venezuelan democracy to survive in the 1960s leftist guerrilla movement as well as destabilisation attempts by the Dominican Republic's right wing dictator, Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.
Fall out of favor
Eventually, the pact became a political distribution of power between the two main political parties that signed it for a bipartite system. Citizens, intellectuals, journalists, and the media started to demand a reformation of all the political system to transform Venezuelan democracy to fit a growing democratic society.
Former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez promised in his 1998 presidential campaign that he would break the old system and open up political power to independent and third parties.[3]
Similar pacts
It bore a resemblance to the turno pacifico of the restored Spanish monarchy between 1876 and 1923, in which Conservative and Liberal Parties alternated in power.
It also has some similarities with the National Front, which also was enacted in 1958 and ended a military regime. However, the National Front was also instituted to end a civil war between the two parties and was a much more extensive pact, which had the parties alternate in the presidency.
References
- ↑ Crisp, Brian F. (2000). Democratic Institutional Design: The Powers and Incentives of Venezuelan Politicians and Interest Groups. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780804735704.
- ↑ Kozloff, Nikolas (2007). Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 61. ISBN 9781403984098.
- ↑ Ellner, Steve; Hellinger, Daniel (2004). Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era: Class, Polarization, and Conflict. Lynne Rienner Publishers. p. 66. ISBN 9781588262974.
External links
- Pacto de Punto Fijo, in Spanish.
