Teodoro Petkoff

Teodoro Petkoff Malec (; 3 January 1932 – 31 October 2018) was a Venezuelan politician, economist and journalist. One of Venezuela's most prominent politicians on the left, Petkoff began as a communist but founded the democratic socialist Movement Toward Socialism party after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. Petkoff was elected as senator and ran for the presidency twice in the 1980s, being defeated both times. As Minister of Planning, he oversaw President Rafael Caldera's adoption of liberalization economic policies in the mid-1990s. He was a prominent critic of President Hugo Chávez and was a candidate to run against him in the 2006 presidential election until he dropped out four months before the vote to support Manuel Rosales. Petkoff launched the newspaper Tal Cual in 2000 and remained its editor until his death in 2018.

Life and career

Early years His father was a Bulgarian immigrant 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 14 years. In the 1950s he was member of the student resistance against the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez and was imprisoned on several occasions. In the 1960s, along with his brother Luben Petkoff he was a guerrilla fighter under the command of Douglas Bravo against the government of Rómulo Betancourt. Later, he joined the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV).

In 1971, Petkoff left the PCV to found, along with other dissidents, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), after the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. He was a member of Congress and twice an unsuccessful candidate for president, gaining 4% in the 1983 presidential election and 3% in the 1988 presidential election.

In an October 2012 interview, Petkoff noted that while Venezuela under Chávez retained certain democratic institutions, such as political parties and the electoral process, he described other aspects of democracy, such as "the full exercise of freedom of expression," as being "very beleaguered" under Chávez. He said that "Chávez has more fascist than socialist elements, unless we speak of Stalinism: the cult of violence and death, contempt for opponents, singing to the past, and so on."

Personal life On 12 May 2012, Petkoff and his wife were mugged by an armed man on a motorcycle after leaving a Caracas restaurant. In December 2012, while on the island of Margarita, Petkoff suffered a fall and sustained injuries that required surgery. Petkoff died on 31 October 2018.

Works "Checoslovaquia: El Socialismo como problema". (Monte Ávila Editores: 1969,1990) "¿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) "Del optimismo de la voluntad: Escritos políticos" (Centauro: 1987) "Por qué hago lo que hago" (Alfadil: 1997) (with Raúl Huizzi) "Venezuela en la encrucijada" (Universidad de los Andes: 1998) "Una segunda opinión: La Venezuela de Chávez: un libro hablado con Ibsen Martínez y Elías Pino Iturrieta." (Grijalbo: 2000) "Hugo Chávez, tal cual" (Catarata: 2000) "Las Dos Izquierdas" (Alfadil: 2005) "The two lefts: A new South-American revolution" Published by Matthew Clark and Daniel Petkoff 2006 "El chavismo como problema" (Libros Marcados: 2010) "El chavismo al banquillo: Pasado, presente y futuro de un proyecto político" (Editorial Planeta: 2011)