Vices of Democratic Action may be its downfall, many fear

 BY TIM JOHNSON

 CARACAS -- Once a giant of a political party, Democratic Action has fallen on
 such hard times in Venezuela that it can't field a presidential candidate, and
 struggles merely to survive.

 ``I think it is fated to die,'' said Santiago Malave, a consultant and son of a
 onetime party leader. ``It is a shell of what it once was.''

 President Hugo Chavez, a populist former army officer who heads a rival party,
 frequently lambastes Democratic Action for corruption and ineptitude that he
 blames for the nation's deteriorated state. Democratic Action stalwarts are
 sprinting for cover.

 ``It's been tough. I keep a low profile,'' said Timoteo Zambrano, the party's
 secretary general. ``We try to ignore the criticism.''

 Last week, Democratic Action's most widely known politician, Caracas Mayor
 Antonio Ledezma, stepped away from the party and formed his own movement. In
 oil-rich Zulia state, Manuel Rosales, a former Democratic Action governor, has
 rejected party sponsorship for May 28 elections. Even some incumbent party
 governors and mayors have sounded out party leaders about running without
 affiliation.

 ``It has hit bottom,'' said Aristobulo Isturiz, a former mayor of Caracas and leftist
 opponent of the party. ``Even longtime Democratic Action members don't want the
 party to sponsor them.''

 PARTY'S DECLINE

 The decline of the traditional political party is not unique to Venezuela. Across the
 region, older parties have suffered, and charismatic politicians have eschewed
 party labels. In Peru, both major candidates in Sunday's elections ran on tickets
 of little-known movements. In Colombia, Noemi Sanin, an independent, made a
 strong showing in 1998 presidential elections and is a favorite for 2002 elections.

 The downfall of Democratic Action, which is known by its Spanish initials as the
 AD, has been dramatic.

 Once wealthy, the party this year decided to rent its imposing six-story
 headquarters in Caracas to raise funds. The last of hundreds of full-time party
 employees were dismissed to cut costs. Zambrano, the party chief,
 acknowledged in an interview that AD leaders had fallen out of step with
 Venezuelans, about 80 percent of whom live in poverty despite the nation's oil
 wealth.

 ``We are aware of our errors,'' he said. ``There was an arrogant use of power.
 There were acts of corruption. There was an excessive concentration of power in
 the party's national directorate.''

 Democratic Action was once formidable. At its zenith in the mid-1980s, it
 reported 2.7 million members, making it one of the largest social democratic
 movements on Earth, said Luis Salamanca, a political scientist at the Central
 University of Venezuela. In Latin America, the party was eclipsed in size only by
 Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, a monolithic movement.

 For much of its history, the AD controlled major unions, professional
 associations, much of the court system, government ministries, hospitals and
 most other social services.

 COME TO POWER

 Since Venezuela returned to democracy in 1958, Democratic Action leaders have
 occupied the presidency five times, far more than the smaller social Christian
 COPEI party, with which it agreed to share power.

 By controlling purse strings in an era of oil wealth, Democratic Action amassed
 vast real estate that Malave said may be worth $100 million today.

 ``The party chiefs decided who would be the next president of the Supreme Court,
 or who would make army general over dominoes or at meetings in their homes,''
 Malave said.

 Party mandarins brooked little dissent, and filled posts without consulting the
 rank-and-file. Venezuelans without party connections suffered.

 ``If you wanted to be president of the dentists' board or the economists' guild or
 the national board of engineers, you had to go through the parties to get there,''
 said Saul Cabrera Oletta, a pollster with Consultores 21.

 Even Zambrano, the AD chief, acknowledged that party hierarchy still emulates
 the rigid communist organizations of the old Soviet bloc.

 ``The party still has a Leninist structure that enshrines democratic centralism.
 This is an aberration,'' he said. ``Our idea is to modernize the party and increase
 ways for people to participate.''

 DECLINE BEGINS

 The party's decline began in the 1980s under then-President Jaime Lusinchi, who
 maintained a scandalous affair with his secretary, Blanca Ibañez. Ibañez grew so
 all-powerful that she manipulated military promotions and left power wealthy.

 Another AD president, Carlos Andres Perez, thrown out of office in 1993, was
 convicted of corruption.

 Faced with the soaring popularity of Chavez in 1998, AD leaders settled on Luis
 Alfaro Ucero, an aged, uncharismatic leader, as their candidate, only to withdraw
 support for him barely two weeks before the election.

 Democratic Action still counts 119 of Venezuela's 330 or so City Halls, and six of
 23 governorships, but it has no national power under Chavez, who was swept into
 office on a landslide in 1998 and remains popular. The AD is not challenging
 Chavez in May 28 elections, and is backing none of his other opponents.

 Whether the party can retain local or regional power is yet to be seen.

 ``A lot of people say AD is wiped out. I don't believe it. It is the party with the
 strongest roots in Venezuela,'' Salamanca said.

 While the party's future is unclear, many analysts are questioning the public
 mauling Chavez is giving traditional parties when his own party, the Fifth Republic
 Movement, suffers from some of the same vices.

 ``It is using the same practices that the AD used for 40 years -- the same
 patronage, the handpicking of candidates . . . [and] the lack of internal
 democracy,'' Cabrera said.