Venezuela: A glossary of terms

From International Socialism 2 : 109, Winter 2006.
Copyright © International Socialism.
Copied with thanks from the International Socialism Website.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.

Leyes Habilitantes
Presidential decrees introducing economic reforms such as the division of uncultivated land among the landless, granting shanty town dwellers ownership of the land they lived on, and reorganisation of management of the state oil monopoly, PDVSA.

PDVSA
Oil monopoly nationalised in mid-1970s.

UNT
New union federation formed from workers’ organisations that opposed the 2002 coup and 2002–03 lockout.

MAS
Party in some ways similar to Eurocommunism formed by ex-guerrillas in the early 1970s. Joined political mainstream in 1990s and split after joining anti-Chavez opposition. Important figures on both left and right of present-day Venezuelan politics come from it (Rangel was its presidential candidate in 1973).

Causa R
Former left wing party with influence in unions that joined right-wing opposition.

PTT
Small pro-Chavez social democratic party.

CPV
Small pro-Chavez Communist Party.

COPEI
Christian Democrat Party, pillar of old pre-Chavez political establishment.

AD
Social Democrat pillar of pre-Chavez political establishment.

Puntofijismo
Arrangement by which pre-Chavez COPEI and AD parties alternated in office and divided patronage to supporters between them.

MVR
Movement for the Fifth Republic, main Chavista party, high level of parliamentary support, but weak in terms of mass organisation.

Bolivarian circles
Network of activist Chavista groups, merged into campaign groups to fight referendum 18 months ago and reported to be of little significance today.

Misiones
Local centres for providing health, education and other welfare provision, financed by oil revenues and operating outside control of state bureaucracy.

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