Accion Democratica (AD)
AD is Venezuela’s traditional ruling party. Officially
founded in 1941, it is a social democratic party closely
associated with the struggles against dictatorships from
the 1930s through the 1950s, and with the founding of
the modern democracy ri 1958. Having moved right-
ward over the years, AD is also associated with the free-
market neoliberal reforms of former president Carlos
Andrs Perez. The party has also been damaged by a
series of recent corruption scandals culminating in the
impeachment of Perez, and the indictment of former
president Jaime Lusinchi, currently in Costa Rica to avoid
a corruption trial in Venezuela. AD’s 1993 presidential
candidate was Claudio Fermin, former (appointed)
mayor of Caracas who ran against the party leadership
in the AD primary and won. With some reservations, he
supported the neoliberal reforms. After languishing in
the polls, he finished second with about 23% of the
vote. AD elected 18 senators and 55 deputies, and will
be a dominant force in Congress.
Copei
Copeiwhose seldom-used original name is the Inde-
pendent Electoral Political Organizing Committeecalls
itself a social Christian party and is associated with the
international movement of Christian democracy. It was
founded in 1946 and abandoned in 1993 by President
Rafael Caldera. Like AD, it is associated with the building
of Venezuela’s modern democracy. Over the years Copei
and AD have converged in the center of the political
spectrum. 1993 presidential candidate Oswaldo Alvarez
Paz was the governor of Zulia, home of the country’s
second largest city, Maracaibo, and base of the oil indus-
try. Alvarez Paz, a strong supporter of neoliberalism, ran
as an outsider in the Copei primary against party leader
Eduardo Fernndez and wonlargely because he was
not associated with the defense of Perez’ discredited
government. He came in third with just over 22% of the
vote. Copei will be the second most significant force in
Congress with 15 senators and 53 deputies.
Convergencia
When Caldera announced his candidacy, he said he
would pull together a great convergence of political forces. This coalition was initially known as the “conver-
gencia.” Later, however, the break-away members of Caldera’s old party, Copei, formed a party within the
coalition and named it Convergenciathus creating
some confusion among supporters trying to distinguish between the party and the entire coalition. Although 18
parties supported Caldera, he was popularly known as
the candidate of the Convergencia. In some states, the
entire coalition put together congressional slates, while in others, each party ran independently. As a conse-
quence, it is somewhat difficult to separate Convergen-
cia’s congressional strength from that of the second
major group in the Caldera coalition, MAS. In any case, candidates elected under the Convergencia banner,
ranging from left to center-right, include five senators
and 24 deputies.
Movement Toward Socialism (MAS)
The country’s long-time third force, MAS was formed
after its leaders broke away from the Venezuelan Com-
munist Party (PCV) in 1971. For 20 years, it has elected
enough members of Congress to be an influential force
in Venezuelan politics, but until now, its presidential
candidates have never received more than .5% of the
vote. While MAS, like AD and Copei, adheres to the
pact among the dominant parties to respect one anoth-
er’s perquisites in order to safeguard constitutional
democracy, it is also associated with the country’s
armed struggle of the 1960s, and many of its leaders
are former guerrillas. It now considers itself to be the
country’s genuine social democratic party. MAS was the
first party to support Caldera, and he received about
11% of the vote under the MAS banner. While in some
states MAS was allied with Convergencia, in many
states it ran its own congressional candidates, and elect-
ed five senators and 26 deputies.
Causa R
A new national force, Causa R, like MAS, has its origins
in the splits of the PCV in the early 1970s. While Causa
R’s ideologythe R stands for radicalremains largely
undefined, its candidates ran as uncompromising oppo-
nents of the Perez government’s neoliberal policies, and
as proponents of the idea that the workers can govern.
Until its strong national showing in the 1993 elections,
the party’s strength had been concentrated in the east-
ern industrial state of Bolivar, and to a lesser degree, in
the nation’s capital, Caracas. Presidential candidate
Andrs Velasquez, a former electrical worker, union
leader, and present governor of BolIvar, came in fourth
with just under 22% of the vote. The party will be rep-
resented by nine senators and 40 deputies.
