Abstract

BERNARDES, Bruno Gonçalves. Venezuela at a crossroad. Relações Internacionais [online]. 2015, n.46, pp.125-141. ISSN 1645-9199.

During four decades, Venezuela had a bipolar and rotating political system. Based upon years of corruption, partitocracy and bad economic performance, the punto fijo became a bipolar system between two strongly organized parties. The election of Hugo Chávez in 1998 broke this system by establishing the new twenty-first century socialism Bolivarian Constitution. The death of Chávez and the latest political confrontations show that Venezuela is living in a new way of political bipolarization. This article aim is to define and explain this new bipolarized system by taking into account the dichotomy between the government and the opposition, as well as the political context after the death of Chávez.

Keywords : Venezuela; bipolarization; chavismo; política externa; South America.

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