Puntofijo Agreement

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The Puntofijo Agreement was a pact between Venezuelan parties, the social democratic Acción Democrática (AD), the Christian Democratic COPEI and the Unión Republicana Democrática (URD) ​​that was signed on October 31, 1958 (a few months after the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez , but signed before the December elections). The name comes from the residence of the same name of the signatory Rafael Caldera in Caracas , where the pact was also signed.

The purpose of the agreement was to preserve the recently introduced democracy by giving all parties involved in the pact a share in the government of the winning party according to their electoral success .

The communist Partido Comunista de Venezuela (PCV), which was one of the main forces in the fight against the dictatorship and established democracy, was not involved in this pact.

The signatories of the pact were Rómulo Betancourt (the winner of the following elections), Raúl Leoni and Gonzalo Barrios for the AD, Jóvito Villalba, Ignacio Luis Arcaya and Manuel López Rivas for the URD, and Rafael Caldera , Pedro del Corral and Lorenzo Fernández for COPEI .

This agreement gradually created a two-party system (the URD gradually lost influence). The phase of “ pacted democracy ” in Venezuela's history did not end until 1999 when Hugo Chávez took office .

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