Movement to Socialism (Venezuela)

The movement towards socialism is positioned as a socialist , but not a Marxist party, born through serious criticism of Soviet socialism and other socialist models. Critical remarks included bureaucratization of power, authoritarianism , social- imperialism , lack of democracy , total control of the media, and shortcomings in economic policy in socialist countries. ^[3] Thus, MAS adopted the doctrine of social democratic , pluralistic , decentralized and non- dogmatic , according to which the construction of socialism must be carried out on the basis of self - government and co-control of the means of production, promotion of the political participation of the population. The movement towards socialism recognizes the market as an effective mechanism for allocating resources, provided that the state corrects the social imbalances created by market relations , and the private sector of the economy develops as part of joint management, that is, with the participation of workers in the management of the company. ^{[4] [5]}

In the early 1960s, Venezuela was shocked by the conflict between left-wing radicals and the ruling Social Democratic Party in those years. Democratic action led by Romulo Betancourt , caused primarily by the latter's foreign policy , including his support for sanctions against revolutionary Cuba and its exclusion from Organization of American States (OAS). While the moderate and right-wing circles of Venezuela were oriented toward the United States , the left preferred to support the Cuban leader Fidel Castro and expressed dissatisfaction with Washington’s interference in the country's internal affairs. In addition to foreign policy, many, including in the party, expressed disagreement with the way the government is fighting unemployment , conducting land reform, as well as with the economic and fiscal policies of the government. The result was several attempts to assassinate President Betancourt or to overthrow him by force of arms, which provoked repression by the authorities. All this led to a guerrilla war , which continued actively until the end of the 1960s, and finally ended only in the early 1990s .

At the end of 1968, the leader of the social-Christian party KOPEY Rafael Caldera became the president of Venezuela, the first since the restoration of democracy in Venezuela, the head of state was not from Democratic action. The new president began to pursue a policy of appeasement, eventually managing to convince most of the partisans and their leaders to lay down their arms and return to civilian life, joining the political process.

On January 14, 1971, a group of former members of the Communist Party of Venezuela (CPV) led by Pompeio Marquez and Teodoro Petkoff (Petkov) with the participation of Eloy Torres, Carlos Arturo Pardo, Tirso Pinto, Freddie Munoz and Archelio Laya held a constituent congress of the Caracas Blind Party at the Levogue Bloc to socialism. The creators of the new party were critical of Soviet communism (while seeing an alternative to it not so much in European communism or Maoism as in the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania), which is why they were forced to leave the Communist Party. In the course of the congress, a split occurred. A prominent figure in the CPV and partisan movement Alfredo Maneiro and several other dissident communists decided not to participate in the creation of a new party, later creating his own party, Radical Affair .

In the first election for himself in 1973, the newcomer spoke out successfully, gaining 5.29% and winning 9 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 2 seats in the Senate, eventually becoming the third party in the country and ahead of the other left parties. In the presidential election, the Movement to Socialism nominated lawyer and journalist Jose Vicente Rangel , a former member of the National Congress of the Democratic Republican Union . With the support of the Revolutionary Left Movement, Ranhel became the fourth with 4.26%, of which 3.70% came from the Movement to Socialism. Gabriel Garcia Marquez , a well-known Colombian writer of left-wing views, donated $ 25,000 to the party’s election campaign. He maintained close friendly relations with Theodoro Petkoff, in particular, sharing his criticism of Soviet imperialism for suppressing the Prague Spring .

In 1978, the party for the second time nominated Rangel as the presidential candidate, who finally took third place and gained 5.18%, more than all candidates who took places below the third. In the congressional elections, she again became the third, having received 6.16% and increasing her representation in the lower house to 11 seats. Thus, the Movement to Socialism consolidated its status as the leading left-wing party of Venezuela.

In the 1983 presidential election, the Movement to Socialism nominated its founder, Theodoro Petkoff, backed by the parties of the Left Revolutionary and Electoral Renewal Integration. These elections were not as successful for the largest left-wing party of the country as the previous ones. Petkoff, although he again took third place, but was able to gain only 3.46% of the vote. In the congressional elections, the Movement to Socialism lost 1 place in the Chamber of Deputies, but still managed to remain the third largest party in terms of mandates.

In the 1988 elections, the Movement to Socialism participated in a single list with the Revolutionary Left Movement. For the second time, Petkoff was nominated for president, and again the party worsened its results. Petkoff managed to take third place, but received only 2.74% of the vote. But the parliamentary elections were much more successful for the Movement to Socialism and the Revolutionary Left Movement. Both parties, following a single list, gained 10.16%, having increased their representation in Congress 1.5 times.

The 1993 elections were the most successful for the Movement to Socialism. This time, the party did not nominate its own presidential candidate, instead joining a broad coalition created to support Rafael Caldera, the most experienced politician of all registered candidates. Prior to that, he ran for president five times, having managed once to succeed, and who served as president of Venezuela in 1963-1968. In 1993, Caldera, not finding support for his ambitions within the KOPEY party, which he founded himself, put forward his candidacy from his new party, National Convergence . He was supported by several small parties from the extreme left to the centrist . Largely due to the crisis of confidence in two traditional parties, Democratic Action and KOPEY, who succeeded each other for 35 consecutive years in power, caused by many years of serious economic problems, exacerbated by the banking crisis and corruption scandals, Caldera took first place, with about 10% of the vote MAS. As a result, representatives of the Movement to Socialism entered the Caldera government for some time. In the congressional elections, the party showed its best result. In the elections of the Chamber of Deputies, she managed to attract 10.81% of voters to her side, expanding her fraction by a third. In the Senate elections, the Movement to Socialism received 11.17% of the vote, which allowed him to increase his representation in the upper house by 2.5 times.

In 1994, the Movement to Socialism held internal party elections, as a result of which Gustavo Marquez was elected president of the party, and Enrique Ochoa Antika, deputy of Caracas, was elected general secretary of the human rights activist . Nevertheless, the theses of the liberal socialist Ochoa, who supported the Caldera government, the conclusion of an electoral alliance with the Radical Affair, and the creation of an intra-party ethics commission to fight corruption, were rejected by the party’s leadership. In 1997, Ochoa Antik resigned and eventually left the party. The movement towards socialism is withdrawing support from the cabinet of Rafael Caldera.

Era of Chavez

In the 1998 presidential election, the Movement to Socialism supported the candidacy of Hugo Chavez , bringing him 9% of the vote. This decision caused Petkov, Pompeio Marquez, Luis Manuel Esculpi and a number of other dissenters to leave the party. Eskulpi later formed a new party, the Democratic Left, which was eventually absorbed in the New Time . In the parliamentary elections, the party performed worse than five years earlier, but was able to maintain its representation in Congress.

In 1999, the MAS, as part of the Patriotic Pole coalition ( Spanish: Polo Patriótico ), created by Chavez, took part in the elections to the Constitutional Assembly , which ended in the complete success of the supporters of the incumbent, who got 121 out of 128 seats.

In 2000, the Movement to Socialism in the elections again supported Hugo Chavez, who won a landslide victory, while MAS brought him 8.70% of the vote. In the elections to the new unicameral parliament won 6 seats, entering the five largest parties in the country.

In 2002, the Movement to Socialism turned into opposition to Chavez because of its authoritarianism. ^[6] This decision led to a split in the party. Already in the same year, the governor of Aragua Didalko Bolivar and a deputy from the same state, Ismael Garcia, left the movement, having founded their party “For Social Democracy” ( Spanish Podemos ). Also, a group of its leaders left the party, led by Executive Secretary Felix Jesús Velazquez, who founded the United Left organization ( Spanish: Izquierda Unida ). Having joined the opposition to Chávez, the Movement to Socialism joined the opposition coalition of political parties, public associations and non-governmental organizations, the Democratic Coordinator ( Spanish Coordinadora Democrática ), dissolved after the defeat of the opposition in the 2004 referendum .

In 2005, the movement did not follow the example of the five leading opposition parties in Venezuela and took part in the parliamentary elections , which ultimately failed. The party was able to get only 0.3% and not a single seat in the Assembly. In many ways, the failure was due to a new split in leadership when some leaders of the movement spoke out in support of the government of Hugo Chavez.

In the 2006 presidential election, the Movement to Socialism upheld the single candidate for anti-chavate opposition from state governor Zulia Manuel Rosales , who was defeated. In early 2007, a group of MAS leaders, including Carlos Tablante and Julio Montoya, decided to join Rosales's New Time party.

In 2008, the Movement to Socialism negotiated reunification with the Podemos party, with the possibility of connecting the Radical Reason and Red Flag parties to this process, but in the end Podemos chose to support Chavez. ^[7]

In 2008, leading opposition parties decided to create a bloc for a common fight against Chavez. Democratic action, KOPEY, “The Red Flag” , “ For Justice ”, “ Project Venezuela ”, “New Time” , “ Radical Work ”, Alliance of Brave People , Popular Avant-Garde and the Movement to Socialism signed the Agreement on National Unity. Later, several other parties joined him. On June 8, 2009, the parties to the National Unity Agreement formed the “ Round Table of Democratic Unity ” bloc ( Spanish: Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, MUD ).

The 2010 parliamentary elections did not bring the Movement to Socialism much success. The party was able to gain only 0.45% of the vote, again without representation in the National Assembly.

In the presidential elections of 2012 and 2013, the Movement to Socialism supported the single candidate for anti-chavate opposition by state governor Miranda Enrique Capriles , who was defeated both times, first from Hugo Chavez, and then from his successor Nicolas Maduro .

In August 2013, the Movement to Socialism withdrew from the "Round Table of Democratic Unity", accusing the bloc leaders of polarizing society and decided to participate in municipal elections along with the All for the Fatherland, Podemos and People’s Electoral Movement parties. ^{[6] [8] The} MAS managed to get 115,000 votes nationwide, ^[9] winning the mayoral elections of the municipalities of Santos Michelen (Aragua State) and San Rafael Carvajal ( Trujillo State ). ^[10] On January 19, 2015, MAS Secretary General Felipe Muhika said the party would not return to the Roundtable for Democratic Unity, saying the coalition was "making a mistake trying to polarize the country." ^[11] In the 2015 parliamentary elections, the Movement to Socialism took part in the coalition “Alternative Large National Alliance” ( Spanish: Gran Alianza Nacional Alternativa ).

In the 2018 presidential election, Henri Falcon was nominated for the presidency ^[12] .

Regional Elections

In 1989, the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez decided on decentralization , according to which direct elections of state governors and mayors of municipalities were introduced. Candidates from the Movement to Socialism (Carlos Tablant in 1989 and 1992 , Didalko Bolivar in 1995 , 1998 and 2000 ) won the governorship in the state of Aragua 5 times in a row, which until 2002 , when the party joined the opposition to Chavez, was considered a stronghold of MAS. In addition, candidates for the movement won the gubernatorial elections in the states of Zulia (Lolita Anyar de Castro in 1992), Lara (Orlando Fernandez Medina in 1995 and 1998), Sucre (Ramon Martinez in 2000), as well as in the states of Delta Amacuro and Portugal .

Presidential and Parliamentary Election

• Steve Ellner: "The MAS Party in Venezuela" . Latin American Perspectives, 1986 .
• Venezuela's Movimiento al Socialismo: From Guerrilla Defeat to Innovative Politics by Steve Ellner . [Reviews: by Jennifer L. McCoy in Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Winter, 1989 ), pp. 243–245; by John D. Martz in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Feb., 1989), pp. 142–143].

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