Editing Politics of Venezuela (section)

===1958–1999===
{{Disputed section|date=July 2018}}
{{Main|American Confederation of Venezuela|Republic of Venezuela}}

[[File:Miraflores 2010.JPG|thumb|[[Miraflores Palace]], seat of the [[executive power]]]]
Background to the current political landscapes is the development of [[democracy in Venezuela]] during the twentieth century, in which [[Democratic Action (Venezuela)|Democratic Action]] (AD<sup>x</sup> or Acción Democrática in Spanish, founded in 1941) and its predecessors played an important role in the early years. Democratic Action led the government during Venezuela's first democratic period ([[El Trienio Adeco|1945–1948]]). After an intervening decade of dictatorship ([[History of Venezuela (1948–58)|1948–1958]]) and the fall of dictator [[Marcos Pérez Jiménez]]<ref name="scielo.br">{{cite journal|title=Venezuela: political changes in the Chávez era|first=Rafael Duarte|last=Villa|date=1 December 2005|journal=Estudos Avançados|volume=19|issue=55|pages=153–172|doi=10.1590/S0103-40142005000300011|doi-access=free}}</ref> saw AD<sup>x</sup> excluded from power, four [[President of Venezuela|Venezuelan presidents]] came from Democratic Action from the 1960s to the 1990s. This period, known as the "Fourth Republic", is marked by the development of the 1958 [[Punto Fijo Pact]] between the major parties (originally including the [[Democratic Republican Union]], which later dwindled in significance).{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}<ref>{{Cite journal |date=September 12, 2018 |title=Venezuela in Crisis: A Backgrounder |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354526829 |journal= Elements|doi=10.6017/eurj.v14i1.10333 |last1=Mejia |first1=Jorge Steven |volume=14 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |date=April 2009 |title=Venezuela, Exclusionary Democracy and Resistance 1958-1998 |chapter=Venezuela, Exclusionary Democracy and Resistance, 1958–1998 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338701026 |doi=10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1522 |last1=Wilpert |first1=Gregory |last2=Azzellini |first2=Dario |pages=1–6 |isbn=978-1-4051-8464-9 }}</ref>

By the end of the 1990s, however, the now two-party system's credibility was almost nonexistent.<ref name="scielo.br"/> This was mostly because of the corruption and poverty that Venezuelans experienced as oil wealth poured in during the 1970s and the debt crisis developed during the 1980s. Democratic Action's last president ([[Carlos Andrés Pérez]]) was impeached for corruption in 1993 and spent two years under [[house arrest]] as a result. The other main traditional party [[Copei]], provided two Venezuelan presidents ([[Rafael Caldera]], 1969–1974, and [[Luis Herrera Campins]], 1979–1983). Confidence in the traditional parties collapsed enough that [[Rafael Caldera]] won the 1993 presidential election with about 30% of the vote, representing a new electoral coalition [[National Convergence (Venezuela)|National Convergence]]. By 1998, support for Democratic Action and COPEI had fallen still further, and Hugo Chávez, a political outsider, won the 1998 election.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Venezuela's Chavez Era |url=https://www.cfr.org/timeline/venezuelas-chavez-era |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=Council on Foreign Relations |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Venezuela: political parties {{!}} Think Tank {{!}} European Parliament |url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_ATA(2015)556978 |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=www.europarl.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>