Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan Governor Henri Falcon, an ally of President Hugo Chavez, resigned from the United Socialist Party and called for open talks to resolve problems in the South American country.

Falcon, the governor of the central state of Lara, published a letter to Chavez in major newspapers today to announce his resignation from the PSUV political party and to express his concern that regional leaders only receive orders and aren’t able to communicate with the president.

“I’m concerned about the absence of an adequate space for dialogue,” Falcon wrote. “It’s impossible to build a participative democracy and virtually impossible for the transformation of the country to succeed if local and regional leaders aren’t heard.”

Chavez has warned Falcon to stop listening to opposition parties trying to get him to rebel against the government, saying that he could end up like Raul Baduel, a former Chavez defense minister who was jailed on graft charges. The PSUV will attempt to maintain majority control of the National Assembly in congressional elections in September.

Baduel’s opposition to Chavez in 2007 was one factor leading to the government’s first electoral defeat later that year in a referendum to change the constitution.

Chavez threatened to take over the regional police of Lara state last month after they failed to halt street protests against his decision to remove Radio Caracas Television from the cable television system.

“I’m open to discussing the contents of this letter, about the creation and execution of projects in Lara, and the difficulty that we’ve had in maintaining fluid communication,” Falcon wrote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Cancel in Caracas at dcancel@bloomberg.net.