Venezuelan leftist party rules out alliance with Hugo Chavez ahead of congressional vote

Dissident party: No election pact with Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela — Leaders of a leftist party said Monday they won’t form an alliance with President Hugo Chavez’s governing party for September congressional elections because of the socialist leader’s uncompromising attitude.

The announcement by Fatherland For All — a longtime member of a pro-Chavez coalition — is a setback for the president’s Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela in its effort to strike deals with other pro-government parties to avoid fielding too many candidates and dividing the pro-Chavez vote against a unified opposition.

“It’s impossible to reach an election alliance,” Jose Albornoz, secretary general of Fatherland For All, said.

Albornoz cited what he called Chavez’s “aggressions and criticism” directed at leaders of Fatherland For All, which has been gradually distancing itself from the president but continues to tentatively support him.

The squabbling between Chavez and Fatherland For All began in March, after Lara state Gov. Henri Falcon broke ranks with the governing party and joined its increasingly independent ally. Falcon is popular in Lara, where he served two consecutive terms as the mayor of the state capital and was elected governor by a comfortable margin in 2008.

Since then, more than a dozen members of Chavez’s party have followed Falcon’s example, boosting confidence within Fatherland For All as it prepares to field candidates. The party hopes to expand on the five seats it holds in the 167-seat assembly.

Hector Navarro, a close Chavez confidant, said at a news conference that Fatherland For All is no longer on the governing party’s “list of allies.”

Chavez has repeatedly told his allies that an opposition victory in September’s elections would be a devastating blow to his efforts to transform Venezuela into a socialist state.

The president’s supporters currently have an unbeatable majority in the National Assembly after most opposition parties boycotted Venezuela’s last legislative elections in 2005.

The opposition is competing this time, though, and appears likely to field a single slate of candidates. Leaders of the opposition’s various parties agreed on most of the candidates, then held primaries in April to pick the rest.