Teodoro Petkoff

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Teodoro Petkoff
Teodoro Petkoff
Minister of the Central Office of Coordination and Planning (Cordiplan)
1994-1999
Born January 3, 1932
Zulia State
Political party MAS
Residence Caracas
Alma mater Central University of Venezuela
Profession Politician, Journalist

Teodoro Petkoff Malec (born in Zulia State, January 3, 1932) is a Venezuelan politician, ex-guerrilla, journalist and economist. One of the most prominent politicians on the left in Venezuela, Petkoff began as a communist but gravitated towards liberalism in the 1990s. He has been a prominent critic of President Hugo Chávez, and was a candidate to run against him in the December 2006 presidential elections, but dropped out of the race in August to support Manuel Rosales.

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[edit] Early years

His father was a Bulgarian emigrant and his mother was a Pole of Jewish origin. He received a Bachelor degree in Economics from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) where he also served as a professor for fourteen years. He was member of the student resistance against the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez and was imprisoned on several occasions. He was a guerrilla fighter under the command of Douglas Bravo against the government of Rómulo Betancourt. Later, he joined in the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV).

In 1971, Petkoff left the PCV to found, along with other dissidents of a pro-Soviet tendency, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). He was a member of Congress and twice an unsuccessful candidate for president.

[edit] Minister of Rafael Caldera

In the second government of Rafael Caldera (1994-1999), MAS was in coalition with the centrist party Convergence of Caldera, along with other left-wing parties such as the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) and the MEP, and other right-wing parties as the National Movement of Integration. Petkoff served as Minister of the Central Office of Coordination and Planning (Cordiplan), directing the government's economic policies. From Cordiplan, Petkoff managed the Venezuela Agenda, a neo-liberal government program for reducing the size of the public administration, controlling inflation and stopping the currency devaluation, while administering social programs aimed at improving the population's nutritional health and providing "children-mother" services for the poorest.

[edit] Opponent of Hugo Chávez

1983 MAS Petkoff election poster; the slogan reads "The MAS grows in order to govern"
1983 MAS Petkoff election poster; the slogan reads "The MAS grows in order to govern"

In 1998 Petkoff left the MAS because he was against its support of Hugo Chávez's candidature (see[1]) in the 1998 Presidential election. He left the political world and became a journalist, working as a director of El Mundo. Afterward, he founded his own newspaper, Tal Cual. Tal Cual has been outspoken in its criticism of both the chavism and those who supported the coup attempt against Chávez.

Petkoff has written several political books. In 2005 he published The Two Lefts ("Las dos izquierdas", Alfadil Editor, Hogueras Collection) where he analyzed the resurgence of the left-wing politics in Latin America. Petkoff argues that there is a sharp difference between the governments of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Néstor Kirchner, and Ricardo Lagos, compared to the governments of Chávez and Castro, which he characterises as similar. The main ideas can be read in an article published in the journal New Society (Nueva Sociedad) in Spanish (see Las dos izquierdas).

On April 21, 2006, after rumours indicating that a number of intellectuals and middle-class liberal activists had asked him to run in the 2006 Presidential election, Teodoro Petkoff launched his campaign to be the next president of Venezuela. In a short televised message he explained his reasons and asked Venezuelans to follow his lead in the construction of what he described as a new, better Venezuela. On August 4, 2006, Petkoff dropped out of the presidential race. Five days after dropping out of the race, he endorsed Manuel Rosales, the current governor of Zulia, for the presidency.

[edit] Works

  • "Checoslovaquia: El Socialismo como problema". (MonteÁvila:1969,1990) ISBN 980-01-0295-7
  • "¿Socialismo para Venezuela?" (Editorial Domingo Fuentes:1970).
  • "Razón y pasión del socialismo: el tema socialista en Venezuela" (Editorial Domingo Fuentes:1973)
  • "Proceso a la izquierda: O de la falsa conducta revolucionaria." (Planeta:1976) ISBN 84-320-2509-7
  • "Del optimismo de la voluntad: Escritos políticos" (Centauro:1987) ISBN 980-263-073-X
  • "Por qué hago lo que hago" (Alfadil:1997) ISBN 980-354-050-5
  • (with Raúl Huizzi) "Venezuela en la encrucijada" (Universidad de los Andes:1998) ISBN 980-11-0280-2
  • "Una segunda opinión: La Venezuela de Chávez: un libro hablado con Ibsen Martínez y Elías Pino Iturrieta." (Grijalbo:2000) ISBN 980-293-211-6
  • "Hugo Chávez, tal cual" (Catarata:2000) ISBN 84-8319-142-3
  • "Las Dos Izquierdas" (Alfadil:2005) ISBN 980-354-170-6

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