The Opposition has an umbrella organization called the "Democratic Coordinator." This umbrella organization groups forty-four organizations, a three-people executive level, and the so-called "group of 13" which is rotated monthly. The Democratic Coordinator is the house of at least 100 non-profit political organizations, in addition to 18 political parties, the Venezuelan Workers Federation and a group of at least 20 advisers.(1)

Since 1958 and up to the late nineties, AD and Copei had been the main political parties in Venezuela. They would share political power under the "Punto Fijo" agreement of 1958.(2) The dissapeared Democratic Republican Union joined them in the pact. This agreement would guarantee that these parties would be the only ones controlling Congress, the Supreme Court, and other institutions including the presidency of the Republic. Nevertheless, after many years of corruption and mismanagement, these parties suffered a total debacle and lost their political power. Although AD and COPEI still exist today, many of their top members formed different political parties and non-profit organizations. Even though a majority of the organizations within the Democratic Coordinator are still headed by former AD and COPEI members, a small sector under the leadership of Miranda's Governor Enrique Mendoza has taken control of it.

The military who participated in the April-2002 coup d'etat are also members of the Democratic Coordinator group. Even though some of those with high-military ranks are still active members of the Venezuelan military they have been very open and active in their political participation. This odd situation was generated when the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (The Supreme Court in Venezuela), the only tribunal of justice that can judge on cases involving military of high ranks, decided that a coup d'etat did not occur in April 2002, in spite of the fact that the constitutional president was removed from office and illegally detained; in spite of the fact that twenty seven people were killed; and in spite of the fact that all government institutions including the Supreme Tribunal of Justice itself was abolished by the April dictatorship. As of March 2003, only one of the Generals involved in the coup d'etat, Carlos Martines, is in home-prison after being caught in-fraganti calling publicly for the ousting of the president in front of lower-rank military officials during a political rally in Caracas.

Another sector of the Democratic Coordinator is FEDECAMARAS--the National Federation of Chambers of Commerce. FEDECAMARAS' former president Pedro Carmona Estanga (currently in exile) became the president of Venezuela during the short period of time that Chavez was detained by a group of military in April 2002. The current president Carlos Fernandez has also played a very active role in politics and has been detained in the early morning, Caracas time, of February 20, 2003. Fernandez, the leader of a two-month business strike that paralyzed the distribution of food and gasoline, is being accused of conspiracy on charges of civilian rebellion, treason to the motherland, and damage to government property. He supported the stoppage and sabotage of oil production in PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil company, with the intention of starving people to promote riots and force Chavez from government. Fernandez had been very outspoken asking for the economic sabotage of the government and requesting Chavez's resignation. He also supported the Carmona's coup in April 2002.

The Venezuelan Workers Federation (CTV in Spanish), an AD controlled labor movement, is also part of the Democratic Coordinator group. A shell of its own past self, the CTV lost most its members and workers' support when AD and COPEI lost most of their public support too after forty years of corruption and after failing to provide the workers with an authentic defense of their interest. The leader of the CTV is Carlos Ortega a long-time member of AD who became a union leader in the oil industry. The Federation has played an important role of leadership in calling for Chavez resignation, and had key role in the April coup d'etat, nevertheless, Ortega was sidelined during the brief coup. When Ortega was finally called to participate, the regime was already coming down under the pressure of sectors of the population who had initiated an insurrection to bring Chavez back to power.

Potens are not members of the Democratic Coordinator group but play an important role in supporting the group in many different ways including financially. Potens are people who control financial, technological and societal resources that allow them to influence the shape of our societies and the decision-making process in our societies. They control the mass media and use it to shape the way we think and understand things. Families such as the Cisneros, Zuloaga, Phelps, Mendoza, etc. form part of this group of very influencial people. There are also international potens who act through foreign regimes such as the United States. They all have international influence and can portrait a government in a certain way based on the level of support they obtain from this government. They can offer their own version of events and can, through their relationship with international factors, mislead not only the Venezuelan people but people all over the world about the reality of what is happening in the country.

Curiously while the above sectors in society are accusing the Chavez's government of trying to implement a Castro-Communist government in Venezuela, and are using this statement to justify their attempts to overthrow it, there are other sectors within the Democratic Coordinator that are stating exactly the opposite. Groups such as Red Flag (BR in Spanish), Movement Towards Socialism, and the Radical Cause say that Chavez is pro-capitalism and that they want to overthrow him to establish a real socialist revolution.

The Democratic Coordinator group has tried an excellently orchestrated coup in 2002, economic sabotage, and misinformation to achieve the group's only major agreement, to get rid of Chavez. In spite of the short success in April 2002, they have failed. This failure is in a big part the result of the lack of a coherent and unified alternative plan to what the Venezuelan government is doing right now. They also have too many leaders for too few positions of power which leads to a constant infighting that has at moments transcended to the public. The search for individual power is notorious and sometimes it is hard to know whether a leader of a party forms a new non-profit organization as a way of obtaining an additional vote in the decision-making process within the Democratic Coordinator group, or as result of real disagreements with their former allies in the party. The Democratic Coordinator latest goal is early elections. But no much else is clear. When you ask a member of the Democratic Coordinator what their plans are for a post-Chavez era, the answer is something like this, "right now our focus is to get rid of Chavez, once we obtain that then we will find a way to reestablish democracy in Venezuela."