Puntofijo Pact

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Punto Fijo Pact
1958 magazine cover featuring the leading signatories of the Pact from left to right: Rafael Caldera, Jóvito Villalba, and Rómulo Betancourt.
Signed31 October 1958
LocationPuntofijo Residence, Francisco Solano López Avenue, Sabana Grande, Caracas, Venezuela
Parties
  • Acción Democrática
  • COPEI
  • Unión Republicana Democrática
Full text
Punto Fijo Pact at Wikisource

The Puntofijo Pact (or Punto Fijo Pact) was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of

1958 presidential elections and the preservation of the new democratic system. The pact was a written guarantee that the signing parties would respect the election results, prevent single-party hegemony, share power, and collaborate to prevent dictatorship.[1]

The Puntofijo pact is often credited with launching Venezuela towards democracy, being recognized for creating the most stable period in the republican history of Venezuela.[2][3] While it provided the grounds for possible democratic deepening, it has also been criticized for enabling an inflexible two-party system between AD and COPEI.[4]

Background

On January 23, 1958, President Marcos Pérez Jiménez fled Venezuela for the Dominican Republic and a group of military leaders took control of the country.[5] The presidency of Pérez Jiménez was a dictatorship that relied heavily on oil revenues to pay for a massive urbanization and modernization campaign in the cities of Venezuela.[5] The United States supported the government of Venezuela because it was a reliable oil source.

Following Pérez Jiménez's ouster, the three major parties in the country — COPEI, AD, and the URD — came together to ensure a lasting democracy in Venezuela, a country that had been under dictatorial rule for nearly all of its history since gaining independence in 1830.

The parties were aware that if one of them disputed the results of the pending election, it would only harm the country given the economic instability and volatility that had resulted from the declining oil prices and post-coup atmosphere. The pact was a way for the parties to ensure cooperation and compliance with election results. This would allow for the transition to democracy.

Signing and results

The pact was signed in, and named after, the residence of COPEI leader

COPEI, and AD. Its adherents claimed the pact 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 in positions of power in bids for national unity governments, and by having a basic shared program of government.[1] They guaranteed, for example, the continuation of obligatory military service; improved salaries, housing, and equipment for the military.[citation needed
]

Three members of each party signed the pact. These men included Rómulo Betancourt of AD, Rafael Caldera of COPEI, and Jóvito Villalba of the URD.[6] Both Betancourt and Caldera would go on to become presidents of Venezuela. The pact served to deepen democracy in the region in that it ensured respect of the democratic process of the election. This allowed for the uncontested democratic election of Rómulo Betancourt,[citation needed] and Betancourt would go on for the first time in the Venezuelan history of the 20th century to finish the tenure of a government elected by universal suffage.[7]

In 1962, URD refused to sign the Costa Rica agreement, which excluded Cuba from the Inter-American system. The decision was accompanied by the immediate withdrawal of the tripartite coalition in the government of Rómulo Betancourt.[8]

Deterioration

COPEI and AD became increasingly reliant on the shared oil revenues to secure their power over Venezuelan politics through a system of patronage and clientelism,

Convergencia. Presidential candidate Hugo Chávez ran on a platform of attacking the AD and COPEI bipartisanship in his 1998 election campaign, promising to break the traditional system.[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. ^
    JSTOR 3176972
    .
  2. ^ Rey, J. C. (1991). La Democracia Venezolana y la crisis del sistema populista de conciliacion. pp. 533–578.
  3. Polity Press
    .
  4. ^
    S2CID 153994955
    .
  5. ^ a b Velasco, Alejandro (2015). Barrio Rising.
  6. ^ "Document #22: "Pact of Puntofijo," Acción Democrática, COPEI and Unión Republicana Democrática (1958) | Modern Latin America". library.brown.edu. Retrieved 2016-11-27.
  7. ^ "Pacto de Punto Fijo". Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela (in Spanish). Fundación Empresas Polar. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
  8. ^ "Jóvito Villalba, URD y Margarita". El Sol de Margarita. 2009-02-12. Archived from the original on 2009-02-12. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  9. ISSN 1470-9856
    .
  10. S2CID 252930082
    .

External links

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