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 1958 magazine cover featuring the leading signatories of the Pact from left to right: Rafael Caldera, Jóvito Villalba, and Rómulo Betancourt. | |
| Signed | 31 October 1958 |
|---|---|
| Location | Puntofijo Residence, Francisco Solano López Avenue, Sabana Grande, Caracas, Venezuela |
| Parties | |
| Full text | |
 Punto Fijo Pact at Wikisource | |
The Puntofijo Pact (or Punto Fijo Pact) was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of Venezuela's three main political parties in 1958, Acción Democrática (AD), COPEI (Social Christian Party), and Unión Republicana Democrática (URD), for the acceptance of the 1958 presidential elections and the preservation of the new democratic system. The pact was a written guarantee that the signing parties would respect the election results, prevent single-party hegemony, share power, and collaborate to prevent dictatorship.[1]
The Puntofijo pact is often credited with launching Venezuela towards democracy, being recognized for creating the most stable period in the republican history of Venezuela.[2][3] While it provided the grounds for possible democratic deepening, it has also been criticized for enabling an inflexible two-party system between AD and COPEI.[4]
- ^ Corrales, Javier (2001-01-01). "Strong Societies, Weak Parties: Regime Change in Cuba and Venezuela in the 1950s and Today". Latin American Politics and Society. 43 (2): 81–113. doi:10.2307/3176972. JSTOR 3176972.
- ^ Rey, J. C. (1991). La Democracia Venezolana y la crisis del sistema populista de conciliacion. pp. 533–578.
- ^ Philip, G. (2003). Democracy in Latin America: Surviving conflict and crisis?. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- ^ McCoy, Jennifer (July 1999). "Chavez and the End of "Partyarchy" in Venezuela". Journal of Democracy. 10 (3): 64–77. doi:10.1353/jod.1999.0049. ISSN 1086-3214. S2CID 153994955.