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Opposition parties agree to field joint candidates

Venezuela's major opposition parties agreed on Wednesday to choose single candidates in upcoming gubernatorial and municipal elections in hopes of ending a near monopoly on the control of local governments by allies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The agreement was signed the nation commemorated the 50th anniversary of the overthrow of General Marcos Perez Jimenez, the country's last dictator.

Opposition leader Enrique Mendoza called the unity pact "the best tribute to 50 years" of democracy, saying it would help capitalize on Chavez's defeat in a Dec. 2 referendum that would have dropped barriers to his continual re-election.

The opposition agreed use polls and primaries to choose single candidates ahead of November's gubernatorial and municipal elections -- a pact designed to prevent multiple candidates from running for the same office and splitting the anti-Chavez vote, as they have in the past. It remains unclear, however, if individual aspirations will undermine the agreement.

Following the signing the pact, thousands of Chavez's critics then took to the streets waving red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flags to commemorate Jan. 23 -- a date that has underscored the country's political divisions since Chavez took office in 1999.

For years, Chavez has called the anniversary the start of a "fake democracy," preferring instead to celebrate the failed coup he led on Feb. 4, 1992.

Opposition politician Cesar Perez Vivas said the socialist president wants to "remain in power forever," and vowed to challenge any future constitutional changes that could let the president run for re-election in 2012 and beyond.

Chavez's supporters, meanwhile, commemorated the date by laying wreaths at the grave of Fabricio Ojeda, a journalist-turned-guerrilla who helped organize street protests that culminated in the end of Perez Jimenez's regime.

Ojeda's daughter Marianela -- a Chavez supporter -- argued that elected leaders who succeeded Perez Jimenez betrayed democracy by outlawing the Communist Party and imprisoning its leaders.

"It's said that was the beginning of democracy, but it wasn't true democracy," she said.

Ojeda joined Cuban-supported rebels who took up arms against the elected government that followed Perez Jimenez, and died in jail in 1966. The government at the time said it was suicide, but his supporters say Ojeda was murdered.

Chavez-allied candidates have dominated in local elections in recent years, and all but four of 23 state governors are pro-Chavez.
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