Venezuelan opposition
The Venezuelan opposition, also referred to as anti-Chavismo, is a political umbrella term used to describe political, social, and religious movements that have opposed the Chavismo ideology and the associated Bolivarian Revolution political process since 2 February 1999 under Hugo Chávez, Nicolás Maduro, and Delcy Rodríguez.
Background
After the February 1992 coup attempt, The first reaction of the traditional political parties was channeled in the Venezuelan Congress, through a document of condemnation, approved unanimously and without discussion, of the actions of Chávez and his companions, as well as an endorsement of democracy as a form of government. Congressman specifically exclaimed, "Death to the coup plotters!"Chávez became a presidential candidate in April 1997, after obtaining the approval of his political movement, the MBR-200, to participate in the 1998 elections, founding the Fifth Republic Movement party. At the time, the frontrunner was Irene Sáez, Miss Universe 1981 and Mayoress of the Chacao Municipality, but she lost popularity after receiving backing from COPEI.
Chávez was declared the winner of the 1998 presidential elections and the opposition electoral front, the Polo Democrático, dissolved afterwards. However, despite losing the presidential elections, the non-Chavista political forces held a majority in Congress and represented an obstacle for Chávez's Constituent Assembly, as he promised to seek their support to push it forward.
Chávez presidency
1999 Constituent Assembly
Although Chávez promised to seek the support of the opposition-dominated Congress before starting the Constituent process, on his first day as President, Chávez decreed a call for a referendum to determine whether a new Constitution should be drafted using a method proposed by him. According to statements made at the time by the head of the Movement for Socialism parliamentary group, Chavismo's main ally in Congress, even they had not been informed of this step beforehand. Once again, the opposition was caught divided: the COPEI party, Justice First and former candidate Irene Sáez, who had just formed an alliance with the Chavistas in the Nueva Esparta state, supported the decree; Henrique Salas Römer's Project Venezuela and Democratic Action criticized the manner in which Chávez was leading the process, arguing that it excluded the Congress. La Causa R and Convergencia were cautious as they did not know the details of the country's project proposed by the President. Only the Movimiento Apertura of former President Carlos Andrés Pérez was completely opposed to the measure.The process promoted by Chávez was not set forth in the 1961 Venezuelan Constitution, but two favorable decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice in January 1999 paved the way for this proposal. The Supreme Court even ratified Chávez's opinion that since the Constituent Power was an "original power", it should not be subject to the powers established in the current constitution. The National Electoral Council gave its approval after reviewing the bases proposed by the President, and the referendum was set for 25 April. Henry Ramos Allup, from Democratic Action, criticized then the behavior of the bodies, saying that they presented an "obsequious attitude" towards the President.
The April 1999 Venezuelan constitutional referendum was held under a climate of electoral apathy. The abstention was 62.4%, and the result was overwhelmingly in favor of the proponents of the Constituent, who obtained a vote of 87.8%. The bases proposed by Chávez and revised by the CNE were also approved, although with a slightly lower support. A proportional representation system in the selection of the members of the National Constituent Assembly was then discarded, and in its place a personalized uninominal direct representation system was established, which divided the country into two great national circuits and one electoral circuit for each state, a system in disuse since the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez.
The result of the election of constituents was the over-representation of Chavismo in the Constituent Assembly and a crushing defeat for the opposition, which had once again gone to the polls divided. With 65% of the votes, Chavismo obtained more than 95% of the constituents. Although the great majority of the candidates were civil society members, outside the political parties, the lack of unity atomized their efforts. As such, 33% of the forces that voted for candidates unrelated to the Chavismo, only managed to bring seven constituents, one of them being Antonia Muñoz, a dissident Chavista who soon rejoined the ruling party. Political parties and civil associations were marginalized from the constituent process, and the role of opposition then fell on the state institutions, where the Congress and the Supreme Court stand out. After the elections, Democratic Action and Copei experienced internal crises: the former announced new base elections to renew the party, and the directive of the latter resigned immediately.
Although the Chavismo obtained near absolute control of the Constituent Assembly, this did not mean that Chávez did not find opposition within his own supporters to several of his proposals for the new Constitution. There were several important changes pushed by Chávez which had initially been discarded by the Constituent Assembly, and which were only admitted under direct pressure from the President. Among the main ones were the inclusion of the term "Bolivarian" in the official name of Venezuela, the suppression of the voting "second round" or ballot, and the restriction of the taxing powers of the states.On 25 August, the conflict between the Constituent Assembly and the Congress openly broke out. Taking advantage of a parliamentary recess, the pro-government constituent majority occupied the Federal Legislative Palace, suspended the sessions of the Congress, reduced its commissions to a minimum and created a delegated commission made up of 23 congressmen who could legislate, but always subject to the veto of the Constituent Assembly in important matters. Congressmen from Democratic Action, Copei and Project Venezuela protested the measure, which they called a coup d'état, and called for an emergency session in the Federal Palace. Aristóbulo Istúriz, president of the Constituent Assembly warned them that "the people would shut them down" if they tried to do so. On 27 August, opposition congressmen tried to enter the Congress but were repelled by Chavista sympathizers, who injured thirty of the first ones when they tried to jump over the fence surrounding the building. The Catholic Church mediated between the Constituent Assembly and the Congress, but although they managed to reach an agreement, the Congress continued to be reduced to its new role of delegated commission, sharing the building with the Constituent. At the time, public opinion interpreted the congressional protests as vain attempts by the discredited traditional political class to stop the changes.
At the same time that the Constituent Assembly minimized the Congress, it also created an "emergency commission" to reorganize the Judicial Power. Due to a sentence issued by the Supreme Court at the beginning of the year, the Constituent Assembly could do so as the "original power". The decision was challenged, but when Cecilia Sosa, the president of the high court, resigned after realizing that her colleagues were going to ratify the January decision, as she considered that the rule of law was being violated with the decision:Although in theory the Constituent Assembly also had the power to intervene the executive branch, the presidential powers, governors and mayors were left untouched, although the Fatherland For All party, then part of the ruling party, considered the idea of removing three opposition governors using the constituent power. For his part, Chávez did not oppose to be ratified by the body, and was sworn in again before the Constituent.
After over three months of work, the Constituent presented its draft constitution on 19 November, which was only opposed by four constituents: Claudio Fermín, Alberto Franceschi, Jorge Olavarría and Virgilio Ávila Vivas, who argued that power was being centralized and that a military estate was going to be formed. A referendum was then called for 15 December in order to approve or reject the text. Democratic Action, Copei, Justice First, Project Venezuela and Fedecamaras campaigned against the approval of the Constitution. Although these forces agreed that a new Magna Carta was necessary in general, they were in complete disagreement with the result, where their representation had been symbolic.
The December 1999 constitutional referendum took place under the same climate of apathy as the one held in April, although the turnout rose to 44.37%. The new votes were endorsed to the opposition to the new constitution, as the Chavismo suffered marginal losses. Although the state of fragmentation of the partisan opposition, which seemed not to have overcome the 1998 defeat, did not allow them to assume an enthusiastic campaign for the "No", the opposition experienced an increase of 142% with respect to the last referendum. However, the majority of Venezuelans continued to show disinterest in the struggle between pro-government and opposition, even when the constitution was at stake.
2000 mega-elections
From then until 2003, the opposition parties were eclipsed in their struggle against the government, and ceded political protagonism to various sectors of civil society. Being directly affected by the government's actions, the business community, the unions, the media and even the Catholic clergy took an attitude opposed to them.Chavez's next electoral challenge was the "2000 mega-elections", these were aimed at electing those who would occupy all popularly elected positions, which numbered more than six thousand. Venezuela was going through economic problems: although the price of oil had tripled since Chávez's arrival, the economy had sunk 7%, unemployment had increased, and foreign investors had moved away from the country. However, in spite of these problems and with the traditional political parties weakened, Chavez's reelection was imminent.
Only two politicians, Antonio Ledezma and Claudio Fermín, both former members of Democratic Action and former mayors of the Libertador Municipality of Caracas, made public their intentions to run against the President, both independently. Unexpectedly, in mid-February 2000, Chávez's other partners: Francisco Arias Cárdenas, Jesús Urdaneta and Joel Acosta Chirinos; made a public statement giving Chávez an ultimatum to imprison some members of his government, since they assured that they had irrefutable evidence proving their corruption, including the President of the legislative power, Luis Miquilena, and foreign affairs minister José Vicente Rangel. Chávez's responded by criticizing his former colleagues, whom he reproached for "not having washed the rags at home".
On 15 March Arias Cárdenas, supported by Urdaneta and Acosta Chirinos, registered his candidacy for the presidential election. Upon learning of this, Ledezma withdrew his, but Fermin did not. Miquilena's response was to qualify as "trash" those who abandoned Chávez to support Arias Cárdenas. The new opposition leader received support from La Causa R and a handful of small leftist parties, although not from Democratic Action and Copei. Even though some analysts considered Arias Cardenas more pragmatic than Chávez, others such as Eleazar Díaz Rangel declared that they were basically the same.
Originally scheduled for 28 May, the directors of the National Electoral Council, appointed by the Chavista majority of the Constituent Assembly, proved to be inefficient, and only two days before the elections were to be held, the Supreme Court of Justice suspended them since the Electoral Council was not ready yet. Arias Cárdenas called his supporters to gather in front of the CNE to protest, but they were repelled by a group of Chavistas.