Fissures between the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) and its grassroots base widened amid disaffection with the dismal economic performance of President Nicolás Maduro's government and the trend of militarization in his administration. Economic crisis and chronic insecurity accelerated migration. Opposition strategies of violent protest resumed as the executive continued to bypass the opposition-controlled legislature. Long-term divisions within the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) alliance over strategies for removing the government prevented the opposition from capitalizing on social discontent. The rift between parties supporting electoral approaches and more radical perspectives pressing for the overthrow of the government were replicated among external actors, whose interventions aggravated rather than alleviated political tensions.
Dr Julia Buxton is Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for International Cooperation and Security in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, UK. Her research field covers Latin American politics; conflict prone countries and regional capacities in democracy promotion and conflict resolution. Her publications include The Failure of Political Reform in Venezuela (Ashgate, 2001) and the edited collections, with N. Phillips, Country Case Studies in Latin American Political Economy (Manchester University Press, 1999) and Developments in Latin American Political Economy (Manchester University Press, 1999).
Since the election of Hugo Chávez Frías to the Venezuelan presidency in 1998 on a platform of 'revolutionary' change, the country has been wracked by political turmoil and violence between pro-and antigovernment groups. While the political crisis has been reported and portrayed as a new phenomenon that has emerged as a result of Chávez's policy programme and style of government, this article argues that the conflict has deep historical roots and that it has been shaped by the legacy of political organisation in the pre-Chávez period.
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