A New Era ( es, Un Nuevo Tiempo, UNT) is a
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The c ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
. It received 11% of the vote in the
2008 regional elections. The party arose in
Zulia State
Zulia State ( es, Estado Zulia, ; Wayuu language, Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the States of Venezuela, 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest popu ...
, Venezuela's most populous, and remains far stronger in its home region than elsewhere in the country, providing the state governor since 2000 (currently
Pablo Pérez Álvarez
Pablo Martín Pérez Álvarez (August 19, 1969 in Maracaibo) is a Venezuelan lawyer, politician and former Governor of Zulia State.
Biography
Studies
In 1986 he graduated from secondary school with a diploma in Humanities. Pérez Álvarez ...
, previously
Manuel Rosales
Manuel Antonio Rosales Guerrero (born December 12, 1952, in Santa Bárbara del Zulia) is a Venezuelan educator and politician, current governor of Zulia, Venezuela's most populated state. He was the most prominent opposition candidate in the ...
) and the mayor of its largest city,
Maracaibo
)
, motto = "''Muy noble y leal''"(English: "Very noble and loyal")
, anthem =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_alt = ...
(since 2010, currently, Eveling Trejo de Rosales).
12 candidates of ''Un Nuevo Tiempo'' or supported by ''Un Nuevo Tiempo'' were elected deputies to the National Assembly out of 15 in the
September 2010 legislative elections. Along with some other opposition parties, ''Un Nuevo Tiempo'' boycotted the
December 2005 legislative elections. The party's previous leader was
Manuel Rosales
Manuel Antonio Rosales Guerrero (born December 12, 1952, in Santa Bárbara del Zulia) is a Venezuelan educator and politician, current governor of Zulia, Venezuela's most populated state. He was the most prominent opposition candidate in the ...
, Governor of
Zulia
Zulia State ( es, Estado Zulia, ; Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It ...
(2000 - 2008). He was also its candidate for the
2006 presidential election, attracting 37% of the national vote.
Omar Barboza
Omar Enrique Barboza Gutiérrez (born 27 July 1944) is the president of the Venezuelan political party '' Un Nuevo Tiempo'' ("A New Era"), in opposition to Nicolás Maduro.
In February 2009 a constitutional amendment to remove term limits o ...
is the current party president.
UNT was admitted into the
Socialist International
The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labour-oriented political parties and organisations. ...
as a consultative member at the SI's spring congress on 4–5 February 2013. It became a full member in 2017.
On May 6, 2016, the party reported that a local party leader named
Germán Mavare, in
Barquisimeto
Barquisimeto (; guc, Watkisimeeta) is a city in Venezuela. It is the capital of the state of Lara and head of Iribarren Municipality. It is an important urban, industrial, commercial and transportation center of the country, recognized as the fou ...
,
Lara
Lara may refer to:
Places
* Lara (state), a state in Venezuela
*Electoral district of Lara, an electoral district in Victoria, Australia
* Lara, Antalya, an urban district in Turkey
* Lara, Victoria, a township in Australia
* Lara de los Infa ...
, had been killed by a gunshot to the head.
Party platform
UNT is a
social democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
party. In its party program, the party identifies itself as
progressive and leftist. UNT wants reduced Presidential powers and oppose the use of public resources in electoral campaigns. UNT believes in tolerance for religions and political ideologies that are "tolerant". UNT advocates improved prison conditions and the creation of a security force composed of better trained and paid police. UNT also demands legal reform to better favor defendants in criminal trials.
UNT supports combining state economic planning that guides the efforts and expectations of capital, labor and consumption with social markets. They reject neoliberal policies and believe that economic growth must benefit the people more equally. They propose the creation of a Fund for Financing Diversified Development from the surplus of oil revenue. They believe job growth should be the decisive metric in the national economic plan. They also consider important the state planning of a housing construction process carried out by private industry as a powerful factor for the creation of jobs. As well, they propose to encourage and encourage the expansion of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), which are considered providers of mass employment. Finally, the UNT supports labor unions and opposes exchange control and rigid prices as it discourages domestic production.
UNT believes that the oil industry should remain in the hands of the state. However, UNT believes that other sectors, such as metal resources and public utilities, should be run by
private-public partnerships or another form of mixed ownership, and opposes further nationalization of industry. They believe that
PDVSA
Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, ) (English: Petroleum of Venezuela) is the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company. It has activities in exploration, production, refining and exporting oil as well as exploration and production ...
should be outside the influence of some partisan control and that the system of appointing its staff should be based on merits and technical and professional capacity. They believe that under the guidance of the State, the private sector should be encouraged through tenders and contracts to convert oil "into the effective engine of a powerful and varied constellation of national industries."
UNT recognizes, despite their "imperfections," the achievements of the 1961
land reform
Land reform is a form of agrarian reform involving the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution, generally of agricultural ...
by Rómulo Betancourt to encourage income equality in the countryside by redistributing the land from its few owners to the many. They are in favor of safeguarding private property in the countryside by focusing its strategy on safeguarding labor rights through adequate wages and social security.
UNT wishes to reduce income inequality. However, they recognize the differences between the value and social utility of the contributions of those receiving higher salaries and those receiving lower salaries, as well as the difference in training and responsibility between them. They recognize the successes of the "universal-assistance" method implemented during the first thirty years of democracy by successive governments and oppose the "selective-compensatory" social policy model implemented by the neoliberal governments of Carlos Andres Perez and Rafael Caldera. They criticize them for "populist style" and not leading to collective "self-help" and structural changes.
UNT believes that universities should be autonomous but regulated by the State. They believe that technical education should be favored at the basic education level and that training in various trades should be promoted through the National Institute of Educational Training (INCE) to help the economy and reduce unemployment. They believe that the demand for basic and secondary education should be increased through State incentives. They wants to give opportunities to study technical careers to those who do not go to university. UNT believes that pre-school education should receive careful attention from the government as a means to reduce the amount of time parents need to devote to taking care of young children.
Deputies at the National Assembly
*
Carlos Ramos Rivas
*
José Manuel Olivares
*
Melva Paredes
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Era
1999 establishments in Venezuela
Full member parties of the Socialist International
Political parties established in 1999
Political parties in Venezuela
Social democratic parties in Venezuela