The People's Electoral Movement (''Movimiento Electoral del Pueblo'', MEP) is a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, founded in 1967 by Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa. The MEP was founded after Prieto Figueroa won the 1967

Acción Democrática Democratic Action (, AD) is a Venezuelan social democratic and centre-left political party established in 1941. The party played an important role in the early years of Venezuelan democracy, leading the government during Venezuela's first democ ...

(AD)

primary election Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pr ...

, only to see his nomination overturned by the Romulo Betancourt faction, in favour of Gonzalo Barrios, considering Prieto too far left.David L. Swanson, Paolo Mancini (1996), ''Politics, media, and modern democracy: an international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences'', Greenwood Publishing Group. p244 Prieto Figueroa, at the time President of the

Venezuelan Senate The Senate of Venezuela was the upper house of Venezuela's legislature under its 1961 constitution. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly of Venezuela. However, since 1999 the former cha ...

as well as President of AD, split from AD over the affair along with a substantial number of his supporters. Prieto Figueroa achieved 19% of the vote in the

1968 Venezuelan presidential election General elections were held in Venezuela on 1 December 1968.Dieter Nohlen (2005) ''Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II'', p555 The presidential election was won by Rafael Caldera of Copei, who received 29.1% of the vote. ''Ac ...

, coming fourth in a close election (

Rafael Caldera Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( ; 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009) was a Venezuelan politician and academician who was the 46th and 51st president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999, thus becoming the longest se ...

won with 29%). However Prieto's subsequent electoral run, in the 1978 Venezuelan presidential election (the party endorsed in 1973), achieved only just over 1% of votes. Prieto Figueroa led the party until his death in April 1993. At the December 1993 election it was part of the National Convergence coalition which successfully backed

. The party supported

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

from 1998 onwards, and in the legislative elections, 4 December 2005, the party won 11 out of 165 seats in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

Presidential candidates supported

* 1968 election: Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (19.34%) * 1973 election: (5.07%) * 1978 election: Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa (1.12%) * 1983 election:

José Vicente Rangel José Vicente Rangel Vale (10 July 1929 – 18 December 2020) was a Venezuelan politician. He ran for president three times in the 1970s and 1980s and later supported Hugo Chávez. He served under Chávez as List of Ministers of Foreign Affairs ...

(3.34%) * 1988 election: Edmundo Chirinos (0.79%) * 1993 election:

(30.5%) * 1998 election:

(56.2%) * 2000 election:

(59.8%) * 2006 election:

(62.8%)

People's Electoral Movement

People's Electoral Movement- The Socialist Party of Venezuela (MEP) is a leftist political party that was founded on 10 December 1967. It was founded on the doctrines of socialist democracy, revolution, and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

. Its founders include Luis Beltran Prieto Figueroa, Jesús Ángel Paz Galárraga and Salom Mesa. In 2021, it had four representatives in the National Assembly- three deputies and an alternate. The three deputies are Gilberto Giménez, Ignacio Buznego, and Candelario Briceño. The alternate is Leticia Rangel.

Ideology

The party was born as a left wing from the Venezuelan

Populist Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...

Movement in 1967. In 1970, they adopted a clear socialist orientation, but they were hesitant in some aspects. This led to an evolution towards

scientific socialism Scientific socialism in Marxism is the application of historical materialism to the development of socialism, as not just a practical and achievable outcome of historical processes, but the only possible outcome. It contrasts with utopian social ...

and the use of the dialectical method. The political basis and ideologies of the party were declared by its founder, Luis Beltrán Preito Figueroa, in his thesis Del Tradicionalismo a la modernidad. This thesis is also known as Libro Morado. The fundamental values of the MEP are: * National Liberation- The MEP is an instrument to eradicate imperialist exploitation and oligarchy. * Socialist Democracy- The MEP works to overcome contradictions and differences of the nation's classes and to further develop the human personality. Furthermore, Preito Figueroa expressed that socialist democracy means giving power to the working class as well as both manual and intellectual workers, who exercise control over the state and its means of production. With regards to the economic aspect, Prieto Figueroa defended that social property should not be regulated in a bureaucratic or uniform matter. With this, it favored the

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...

of large companies, the creation of some self-managed units in medium and small companies, and an exception of a few small companies in private control for an indefinite amount of time. At the same time, he claimed that socialist democracy implied that they would create a plan for the economy to benefit the

common good In philosophy, Common good (economics), economics, and political science, the common good (also commonwealth, common weal, general welfare, or public benefit) is either what is shared and beneficial for all or most members of a given community, o ...

, and distribute wealth with regards to the work each individual completes. Similarly, Prieto Figueroa states that steps towards socialization are only taken when the state is under heavy influence by the power of the working class.

History

Origen

The MEP was born from a leftist sector of Democratic Action (AD) in 1967 as a result of internal struggles in the party over the presidential elections. Because of this, the president of the AD, Luis Beltran Figueroa decided to retire from the organization along with many other notable leaders, such as Jesús Ángel Paz Galarraga. This signified the third division of the AD all within the decade, but the creation of the MEP is considered the most successful due to their leading figures and the powerful positions they achieved in the presidential and parliamentary elections of 1968. From the moment the MEP was created, leftist parties were divided. Some were still in a war against Raúl Leoni's government, while others preferred

abstentionism Abstentionism is the political practice of standing for election to a deliberative assembly while refusing to take up any seats won or otherwise participate in the assembly's business. Abstentionism differs from an election boycott in that abs ...

. The

Communist Party of Venezuela The Communist Party of Venezuela (, PCV) is a communist party in Venezuela. Founded in 1931, it is the oldest active political party in Venezuela, and was the country's main leftist party until it fractured into rival factions in 1971. The P ...

retired from this armed fight even though they didn't have the authority to participate under this name. Before this event, a leftist party emerged that proposed changes to a democratic socialist system and national liberation, which signified putting power in the hands of the working class and workers from both the city and the countryside. They also proposed that oil and basic industries become social property, while the state takes control over natural resources, education, basic health services,

social security Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...

, and other similar entities. It is important to note that Nicolás Maduro García, the father of Nicolás Maduro Muros (Venezuela's current president), was one of its founders.

References

* *https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1354068898004004005 1967 establishments in Venezuela Intervened political parties in Venezuela Left-wing nationalist parties Organizations of the Bolivarian Revolution Political parties established in 1967 São Paulo Forum Socialist parties in Venezuela {{Venezuela-party-stub