STOCKHOLM REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES Issue No. 3, December 2008 11 Venezuelan Leftist Parties in the Era of Hugo Chávez1 Rickard Lalander Rickard Lalander PhD. in Latin Abstract: In this article the roots, development and the current American Studies (University situation of the political movement around Venezuelan President of Helsinki). Research fellow Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (Chavismo) are analyzed through his- and lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies, Stock- torical reconsiderations regarding the main Leftist political parties holm University, and associate of the country. Many scholars have tended to neglect important research fellow at the Ibero- historical connections between, for instance, Chavismo and Vene- American Center, University of zuelan historical Leftist parties. Conflict and change in and around Helsinki. Chavismo principally from the early 1990’s onwards are factors to be explored in a context of Venezuelan democracy and leftist political actors, both those associated with Chávez and those ac- tors of the present and recent political opposition. Likewise, the personalistic character of Chavismo and its possible implications for the party system and individual parties are considered. Keywords: Venezuela – Hugo Chávez – Chavismo – Political party system – Leftist parties Rickard Lalander Dr. en Estu- Resumen: En este artículo se analizan las raíces, así como el de- dios Latinoamericanos de la sarrollo y la situación actual del movimiento político alrededor Universidad de Helsinki. Investi- del Presidente venezolano Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (Chavismo) gador asociado del Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la a través de consideraciones históricas sobre los partidos polí- Universidad de Estocolmo y del ticos izquierdistas del país. Muchos académicos han ignorado Centro Iberoamericano de la la importancia de conexiones históricas entre, por ejemplo, el Universidad de Helsinki. Chavismo y los partidos políticos más históricos de la izquierda. Se analizarán aspectos de conflicto y cambio por dentro y fuera del Chavismo en el contexto de la democracia venezolana y los actores políticos de izquierda, tanto los que han estado asocia- dos al movimiento de Chávez, como los de la presente y reciente oposición política. Asimismo, se consideran el carácter persona- lista del Chavismo y sus posibles implicaciones para el sistema partidista y los partidos políticos individuales. Palabras claves: Venezuela – Hugo Chávez – Chavismo – Sistema de partidos políticos – Partidos izquierdistas STOCKHOLM REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES Issue No. 3, December 2008 131 Venezuelan Leftist Parties in the Era of Hugo Chávez Rickard Lalander Introduction In the same spirit, Chávez has spearheaded the crea- The victory of Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías in the tion of a new socialist party: the Unified Socialist presidential elections of December 6th 1998 signi- Party of Venezuela/ PSUV (Partido Socialista Unido fied a definitive rupture of the traditional Venezue- de Venezuela), a project involving the dissolution of lan political party system. Since democratization in all the parties of the hitherto government alliance. 1958, two political parties - the social democratic In this article a number of analytical reflections will AD (Acción Democrática) and the Christian demo- be presented, starting with the Venezuelan politi- cratic COPEI (Comité de Organización Política cal party system, the perspective of President Hugo Electoral Independiente)- had shared an almost he- Chávez and the movement around him (Chavismo), gemonic position in national politics. Between 1968 as well as the leftist political parties in the current and 1988, Venezuela was considered one of the opposition. The roots of Chavismo are analyzed most stable political party systems of Latin Ameri- from a historical perspective. Certain historical fac- ca, particularly from the perspective of democratic tors (mainly actors) are emphasized in order to bet- pluralism. The political party of Chávez, Fifth Re- ter comprehend the development of Chavismo. The public Movement/MVR (Movimiento V República), author will however not thoroughly define or sort has been Venezuela’s strongest political party force out the concepts and characteristics of being Left since 1999. Notwithstanding, Chávez has strived (or Right) in Latin America or Venezuela. Rather, to create a political system in which the political the inclusion of leftist actors in the article is based parties have less importance, in both politics and on their relative importance for the article, and society as a whole. Chávez, re-elected President in their own identification as “left-wing” as well as the 2000 and 2006, has not aimed at institutionalizing popular perception of the respective political move- a strong political party organization (at least not ments or parties. So, in this context, an additional until 2006). purpose of the study is to assess the extent to which From a continental perspective, Hugo Chávez a unified Left exists in Venezuela, and, equally, how has functioned as a pioneer, catapulting the so- solid the political movement of Chávez is from the called leftist transformation of Latin America. His perspective of leftist political parties. The article rise to power in 1998 signaled that the pattern of goes beyond the leftist parties allied with Chávez to neo-liberal governments in Latin America was bro- also consider those of the current opposition. These ken. Few analysts believed then that the Chavismo include the radical party – Radical Cause (La Causa movement would evolve into a new alternative to R)2 - and the socialist MAS (Movimiento Al Social- neo-liberalism on the continent. Since seizing pow- ismo). These were both founded following the split er, Chávez has constituted a challenge for schol- of the Communist Party of Venezuela/PCV (Partido ars who have tried to classify his political project Comunista de Venezuela) in 1971. in terms of leftist or rightist traits. Only recently -since 2005- has the Chávez government itself clas- The Historical Context of the Left in Venezuela sified the transformation of Venezuela as a socialist Before going any further in the analysis of Chavis- project. mo, a brief résumé of the left in the Venezuelan po- litical party system is necessary in order to achieve …The most important theme is that of socialism. a better comprehension of the historical context of Now then, socialism, I repeat, I do not have a manual, recent developments. The first of the modern Ven- the socialist manual. No. I call upon you so that we ezuelan political parties to formally organize was together can construct the socialism. We construct it the PCV, which was founded clandestinely in 1931 from below. An endogenous socialism, our socialist during the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. model… (Chávez Frías, 2006). Like AD and COPEI, the PCV originated out of the student movements of the late 1920s at the Univer- STOCKHOLM REVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES 132 Issue No. 3, December 2008 Venezuelan Leftist Parties in the Era of Hugo Chávez Rickard Lalander sidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. During the The PCV would not recover as the main leftist first years after the death of Gómez in1936, both party in Venezuela. Until the early 1990s MAS was PCV and PDN (Partido Democrático Nacional ), the third political party force of the country. Javier the precursor of AD, operated underground. Until Corrales (2007: 29) contributes important aspects 1945, the PCV dominated Venezuela’s trade union of how and why the Venezuelan Chávez case has scene, but was out-maneuvered by AD, that succes- presented the most radical turn to the Left in the sively incorporated the trade unions, particularly continent since the turn of the century. He argues after 1958 following the overthrow of the dictator- (and the author agrees), that [political] institutional ship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.3 AD was successful opportunities and collective grievances were more in maintaining and deepening its political organi- important factors than traditional exclusion of the zation during dictatorial periods, despite exile and Left. Whereas the radical Left elsewhere in Latin incarceration of its militants. Originally, the party America suffered from institutional exclusion in the was a lot closer to communism and Marxism. The 1980s, the Venezuelan Left had been protected by historic AD leader Rómulo Betancourt openly con- democratic institutions and granted opportunities fessed to being Marxist. The epithet adeco, mean- for institutional integration since the 1968 Caldera ing AD militant, has its roots in the political and administration. ideological categorization of AD during the 1940s. Returning to the split of the PCV, the formation Christian Democratic critics considered the AD to of MAS was followed by the creation of another be no more than was only a communist party in leftist party that would contribute to considerable disguise, thus the AD-CO label. political changes during the 1980s and 1990s. The Indeed until 1957, the PCV was allied with Radical Cause party - Causa R - was founded in AD (and COPEI) in the struggle against dictator- 1971 by Alfredo Maneiro, an ex-guerrilla leader ship. However, one element of the Punto Fijo Pact4 and ex-PCV militant. Maneiro was a co-founder of 1958, was precisely the exclusion of the PCV of MAS but left the party soon after its formation. from the political system. During the first two AD Originally, the Causa R movement grew out of governments (1959–68), the communists operated two sectors: the trade unions of the steel industry clandestinely as an armed opposition. When COPEI (SIDOR) in the state of Bolívar, and the huge Cara- triumphed for the first time in the presidential elec- cas barrio of Catia. All top leftist leaders (including tions of 1968 with Rafael Caldera, its first actions MAS) went to Bolívar in 1970–71 to compete for in government included signing a peace agreement control of the industrial union movement, Venezue- with the leftist guerrillas. The subsequent legaliza- la’s biggest trade union. The group around Maneiro tion of the PCV coincided with the beginning of its would eventually remain insistent in these pursuits.