Democratic Action (Venezuela)
Democratic Action (Spanish: Acción Democrática, 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 democratic period (1945–1948). A decade of dictatorship under Marcos Pérez Jiménez followed, which saw AD excluded from power. With the advent of democracy in 1958, four Presidents of Venezuela came from Acción Democrática from the 1950s to the 1990s during the two-party period with COPEI.
Democratic Action Acción Democrática | |
|---|---|
| President | Isabel Carmona de Serra (de jure) Rubén Antonio Limas Telles (de facto) |
| General Secretary | Henry Ramos Allup (de jure) José Bernabé Gutiérrez (de facto) |
| Founder | Rómulo Betancourt |
| Founded | 13 September 1941 |
| Headquarters | La Florida, Caracas, Venezuela |
| Ideology | Social democracy Left-wing nationalism Progressivism Historical: Socialism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| National affiliation | Democratic Alliance Unitary Platform |
| International affiliation | Socialist International |
| Regional affiliation | COPPPAL |
| Colors | White (official) |
| Seats in the National Assembly | 11 / 277 |
| Governors | 1 / 23 |
| State legislatures | 17 / 237 |
| Mayors | 0 / 335 |
| Website | |
| ademocratica | |
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Since 2000, the party's general secretary has been Henry Ramos Allup. In the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election, AD backed the opposition electoral alliance Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) which managed to grasp a supermajority. AD won 26 constituency representatives out of 167 seats in the unicameral National Assembly, making it the second-largest party in opposition to Nicolás Maduro. In July 2018, AD left the Democratic Unity Roundtable opposition coalition.