Rómulo Betancourt
Encyclopedia
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (22 February 1908 – 28 September 1981), known as "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", was President of Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

 from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964, as well as leader of Accion Democratica, Venezuela's dominant political party in the 20th century. He survived an assassination attempt ordered by Rafael Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina , nicknamed El Jefe , ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. He officially served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, otherwise ruling as an unelected military strongman...

, dictator of the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

. Betancourt, one of Venezuela's most important political figures, led a tumultuous and highly controversial career in Latin American politics. Periods of exile brought Betancourt in contact with various Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

n countries as well as the United States, securing his legacy as one of the few real international leaders to emerge from twentieth-century Latin America. Scholars credit Betancourt as the Founding Father of modern democratic Venezuela.

Early years

Rómulo Betancourt was born in Guatire
Guatire
Guatire is a city in Miranda, Venezuela. In 2006, its population has been estimated at 200,417. Today, Guatire has virtually merged with its neighbor, Guarenas....

, a town near Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

, son of Luis Betancourt Bello (from Canary origins
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

) and Venezuelan Virginia Bello Milano, being the middle brother between his older sister Teresa and younger sister Helena. Living along with his maternal grandmother Maria Milano Bello and his uncle Luis Bello Milano.

From 1914 to 1920 Betancourt began his formal education at a private school created by the community of Guatire and promoted by his own father. In 1921, he moved along with his family to Caracas for high school, graduating from the Liceo Caracas in 1926, the same year that his mother died. In 1927 he entered the law faculty of Central University of Venezuela
Central University of Venezuela
The Central University of Venezuela is a premier public University of Venezuela located in Caracas...

, earning the first year notable qualifications, working at the legal desk and at the Bar Association of Caracas, having great interest in literature, writing short stories and trying to establish a literary magazine.

The year 1928 can be considered the one of Betancourt's political baptism, becoming a member of the "Generation of 1928
Generation of 1928
The Generation of 1928 was a group of Venezuelan students who led protests in Caracas in 1928 against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. Many politicians prominent in Venezuela's transition to democracy took part in the protests...

". Due to his participation along with other members of the Students' Federation of Venezuela (FEV) presided by Raúl Leoni
Raúl Leoni
Raúl Leoni Otero was President of Venezuela from 1964 until 1969. He fought against the dictators Juan Vicente Gómez and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, and was a charter member of the Acción Democrática party....

, in the events of students week (February 1928), which had as its original goal to generate funds for the construction of a Students' house. Later assumed to be a protest against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez
Juan Vicente Gómez
Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón was a military general and de facto ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935. He was president on three occasions during this time, and ruled as an unelected military strongman for the rest of the era.-Early years:Gómez was a barely literate cattle herder and...

, culminating in the incarceration of this group of young leaders and their subsequent transferring to the Libertador castle of Puerto Cabello
Puerto Cabello
Puerto Cabello is a city on the north coast of Venezuela. It is located in Carabobo State about 75 km west of Caracas. As of 2001, the city has a population of around 154,000 people. The city is the home to the largest port in the country and is thus a vital cog in the country's vast oil...

.

Imprisonment lasted only two months through the intervention of respected citizens who advocated for the students' freedom. But this period of forced incarceration in shackles, where not all his student colleagues survived, marked Betancourt as a justice and democracy fighter. On 7 April 1928 shortly after these events, a military conspiracy exploded that earned broad student support seizing the headquarters of Miraflores Palace, but fails to try to capture San Carlos' military barracks. Betancourt, who was involved in the uprising, managed to leave the country for the island of Curaçao beginning his first exile. One that will last until late 1936.

While in Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...

, Betancourt came in contact with many other young Venezuelan exiles, who like him, worked actively against Gómez's repressive regime, joining the Venezuelan Revolutionary Party (PRV) and devoting his time to the study of Latin American and Venezuelan history, socialist doctrine related to imperialist penetration in Latin American countries and the oil business. These studies were later going to define much of Betancourt's controversial political life; marking his eventual passage from prisoner to president.

In 1929, he went to Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

 joining an exile group who wanted to sail to the island of La Blanquilla, in order to join the expedition aboard the cruiser Falke commanded by Román Delgado Chalbaud, trying to land at Cumaná
Cumaná
Cumaná is the capital of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located 402 km east of Caracas. It was the first settlement founded by Europeans in the mainland America, in 1501 by Franciscan friars, but due to successful attacks by the indigenous people, it had to be refounded several times...

 with the intention of overthrowing Gómez. After this insurrection failed, Betancourt traveled to Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, where he met his future wife, Carmen Valverde. In this Central American nation he founded, and led, a number of radical and Communist student groups. In the early 1930s, while in Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....

, he became at the young age of 22, the leader of that country's Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...

. In 1937, after resigning the Communist Party and returning to his native Venezuela, Betancourt founded Partido Democrático Nacional, which became an official political party in 1941 as Acción Democrática (AD).

First term as president

Betancourt became president in 1945 by means of a military coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...

 and, during his time in office, completed an impressive agenda. His accomplishments included the declaration of universal suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...

, the institution of social reforms, and securing half of the profits generated by foreign oil companies for Venezuela. His government worked closely with the International Refugee Organization
International Refugee Organization
The International Refugee Organization was founded on April 20, 1946 to deal with the massive refugee problem created by World War II. A Preparatory Commission began operations fourteen months previously. It was a United Nations specialized agency and took over many of the functions of the earlier...

 to aid European refugees and displaced persons who could not or would not return home after World War II; his government assumed responsibility for the legal protection and resettlement of tens of thousands of refugees inside Venezuela. The refugee initiative was the subject of great controversies within his government with the winning side led by Betancourt's secretary of Agriculture, Eduardo Mendoza
Eduardo Mendoza Goiticoa
Eduardo Mendoza was a Venezuelan scientific researcher and agricultural engineer. He served the government of Romulo Betancourt, becoming the youngest cabinet minister in Venezuelan history at the age of 28. His appointment was problematic due to his young age and required a Constitutional Amendment...

. Betancourt transferred power to his old teacher, the novelist Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of some nine months during 1948, he was the first cleanly elected president in his country's history....

 (who was the first Venezuelan president elected by direct and universal suffrage), being appointed by the latter to head the Venezuelan Delegation to the IX Inter American Conference to be held in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...

, in 1948. Betancourt, was one of the writers of the Constitutive Charter of the OAS
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

. During an address delivered at this Conference, on 6 April 1948, proclaimed:

"...There are several governments in this continent pretending to reconcile their international commitments of a democratic nature with the denial of political and social liberties to their own subjects. But those liberties are as indispensable to civilized man as the oxygen his lungs demand"


Colombian leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala was a politician, a leader of a populist movement in Colombia, a former Education Minister and Labor Minister , mayor of Bogotá and one of the most charismatic leaders of the Liberal Party.He was assassinated during his second presidential campaign in 1948, setting off...

 claimed Betancourt had "offered him arms and money to launch a revolution in Colombia" which was part of Betancourt's alleged plan to build a solid phalanx of left-wing regimes in the Caribbean. It was alleged by Azula Barrera and Colombian President Mariano Ospina Pérez
Mariano Ospina Pérez
Luis Mariano Ospina Pérez was a Colombian engineer and political figure, member of the Colombian Conservative Party. He served as President of Colombia between 1946 and 1950.- Biographic data :...

 that Betancourt had supported the armed rising at the 1948 Inter-American Conference that followed the assassination of Gaitán. and began a new volatile political period in neighboring Colombia which some claim continues to this day with FARC.

Reform of the oil industry

In 1941, before AD's entry into policymaking, Venezuela received 85,279,158 bolívars
Venezuelan bolívar
The bolívar fuerte is the currency of Venezuela since 1 January 2008. It is subdivided into 100 céntimos and replaced the bolívar at the rate of Bs.F. 1 = Bs...

 from oil taxes, out
of a total oil value of 691,093,935 bolivars. Before Betancourt's changes in the taxing system, the state of Venezuela was making only a fraction of what foreign oil companies were making in profit. President Betancourt had overthrown the Isaías Medina Angarita
Isaías Medina Angarita
Isaías Medina Angarita was a Venezuelan military and political leader, president of Venezuela from 1941 until 1945....

 government which had enacted a law to tax oil companies up to 60%, and reserved for the government the right to raise taxes as needed. Betancourt changed the law to "Fifty Fifty."
One of Betancourt's original main objectives was the nationalization
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...

 of the country's oil industry. Mexico had nationalized its oil industry in 1938, and because its economy was more diversified
Diversification (finance)
In finance, diversification means reducing risk by investing in a variety of assets. If the asset values do not move up and down in perfect synchrony, a diversified portfolio will have less risk than the weighted average risk of its constituent assets, and often less risk than the least risky of...

 than Venezuela's, there was little to
no backlash. Though oil nationalization became one of AD's main objectives, the economy was not stable enough to handle potential boycotts by foreign oil companies and would have left Venezuela fiscally vulnerable.

Rationalizing the complications of nationalization at the time, Betancourt's government instead raised taxes on oil production accomplishing the same goal: Venezuela's oil riches to benefit Venezuelans. In the late 1940s Venezuela was producing close to 500000000 barrels (79,493,647,500 l) annually and as production climbed, the tax followed. Then Venezuela was the top oil supplier for the Allies during the wars occurring in the European continent. Betancourt saw the potential to have an important historical role, using this knowledge to his nation's advantage. Germany lacked reliable access to oil limiting troop movements, some historians identify this weakness as a deciding factor in Hitler's defeat.

According to Betancourt, the spike in taxes was just as effective as nationalizing, "Tax income was increased from then to such a degree that nationalization was unnecessary to obtain maximum economic benefits for the people of the country". Oil companies were forced to cede to the demands of labor unions and were no longer entitled to make larger profits than the Venezuelan government. Betancourt's government generally had full support of the labor unions as the administration openly encouraged workers to organize and in 1946, 500 labor unions were created. Another notable achievement of Betancourt's first administration include the termination of the concession
Concession (contract)
A concession is a business operated under a contract or license associated with a degree of exclusivity in business within a certain geographical area. For example, sports arenas or public parks may have concession stands. Many department stores contain numerous concessions operated by other...

 policy, the initial development of refineries
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...

 within Venezuela, and tremendous improvement in worker conditions and pay. Juan Pablo Pérez
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso , was a prominent Venezuelan diplomat, politician and lawyer primarily responsible for the inception and creation of OPEC.-Early career:...

 served as Minister of Development in Betancourt's first term.

During the second term, Pérez served as Betancourt's Minister of Mines and Petroleum and in 1960, through his initiative, OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...

 was founded in Baghdad, Iraq. Triggered by a 1960 law instituted by American President Dwight Eisenhower that forced quotas for Venezuelan oil and favored Canada and Mexico's oil industries. Eisenhower cited national security, land access to energy supplies, at times of war. Betancourt reacted seeking an alliance with oil producing Arab nations as a pre-emptive strategy to protect the continuous autonomy and profitability of Venezuela's oil, establishing a strong link between the South American nation and the Middle East region that survives to this day.

Government Junta cabinet (1945-1948)

Ministries
OFFICE NAME TERM
President Rómulo Betancourt 1945–1948
Home Affairs Valmore Rodríguez 1945–1946
  Mario Ricardo Vargas 1946–1948
Outer Relations Carlos Morales 1945–1947
  Gonzalo Barrios
Gonzalo Barrios
Gonzalo Barrios Bustillos , was a Venezuelan politician. Founding member of party Acción Democrática , and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first AD government . Later Minister of Interior and Justice under Raúl Leoni ....

1947–1948
Finance Carlos D´Ascoli 1945–1947
  Manuel Pérez Guerrero 1947–1948
Defense Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
Carlos Román Delgado Chalbaud Gómez was a Venezuelan career military officer, and as leader of a military junta was President of Venezuela from 1948 to 1950. By 1945 he was a high-ranking officer and was among the leaders of a military coup which brought to power the mass membership party...

1945–1948
Development Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso , was a prominent Venezuelan diplomat, politician and lawyer primarily responsible for the inception and creation of OPEC.-Early career:...

1945–1948
Public Works Luis Lander 1945–1946
  Eduardo Mier y Terán 1946–1947
  Edgar Pardo Stolk 1947–1948
Education Humberto García Arocha 1945–1946
  Antonio Anzola Carrillo 1946–1947
  Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa , was a Venezuelan politician. A founder of Democratic Action and Minister of Education in its first government , he was a leader of Democratic Action after the restoration of democracy in 1958...

1947–1948
Labor Raúl Leoni
Raúl Leoni
Raúl Leoni Otero was President of Venezuela from 1964 until 1969. He fought against the dictators Juan Vicente Gómez and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, and was a charter member of the Acción Democrática party....

1945–1948
Communications Mario Ricardo Vargas 1945–1946
  Valmore Rodríguez 1946–1947
  Antonio Martín Araujo 1947–1948
Agriculture Eduardo Mendoza Goiticoa
Eduardo Mendoza Goiticoa
Eduardo Mendoza was a Venezuelan scientific researcher and agricultural engineer. He served the government of Romulo Betancourt, becoming the youngest cabinet minister in Venezuelan history at the age of 28. His appointment was problematic due to his young age and required a Constitutional Amendment...

1945–1947
  Ricardo Montilla 1947–1948
Health and Social Assistance Edmundo Fernández 1945–1948
Secretary of the Junta Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa 1945–1947
  José Giacoppini Zárraga 1947–1948


Third exile

On 27 November 1948, Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
Carlos Román Delgado Chalbaud Gómez was a Venezuelan career military officer, and as leader of a military junta was President of Venezuela from 1948 to 1950. By 1945 he was a high-ranking officer and was among the leaders of a military coup which brought to power the mass membership party...

, Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Pérez Jiménez
Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez was a soldier and Presidents of Venezuela from 1952 to 1958.-Career:Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez was born in Michelena, Táchira State. His father, Juan Pérez Bustamante, was a farmer; his mother, Adela Jiménez, a schoolteacher...

 and Luis Felipe Llovera Páez launched the 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état
1948 Venezuelan coup d'état
The 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état took place on 27 November 1948, when Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Luis Felipe Llovera Páez overthrew the elected president Rómulo Gallegos. Gallegos had been elected in the Venezuelan presidential election, 1947 and taken office in February 1948...

 and overthrew the elected president Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Gallegos
Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of some nine months during 1948, he was the first cleanly elected president in his country's history....

, and Betancourt went into exile in New York City. In exile he planned a political return sustained on democratic principles and open elections legitimizing his national leadership role. His forward vision and strategy was successful and Betancourt was elected president by his own people upon returning to Venezuela. He had been determined to expose to the world the political problems and dictatorships that plagued the country through most of its modern history - a risky proposition.

"Betancourt's third, and longest, period of exile was a time of enormous frustration. In the prime of his life --for roughly the decade of his forties-- he was forced into relative inactivity and obscurity. He traveled extensively, living in Cuba, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico, and remained a leader of an opposition-in-exile to the Perez Jimenez dictatorship. And of course wrote 'Venezuela: Oil and Politics'. A beach home outside of San Juan (Puerto Rico) provided a quiet refuge for this work," wrote Franklin Tugwell in his Introduction to the 1978 English publication of Betancourt's book.

"The preparation of this book has been as hectic as the life of the author. I wrote it first between the years 1937-39 while I was underground hiding from the police. It could not be published then because no Venezuelan publisher would dare risk printing a book written by one who was in such compromising position...The only typewritten copy was among my personal papers and it disappeared with them when a military patrol plundered the house I was living in when the constitutional government was overthrown on 24 November 1948. Thus most of the material from the first draft was lost.

"I believe that 'the dead command,' although not in the sense that reactionaries have traditionally given the phrase. When they die they give the command for an ideal of human excellence, obliging those who survive to finish their work," wrote Romulo Betancourt in the Prologue to the first edition of "Venezuela: Oil and Politics".

The book published in Mexico City by Editorial Fondo de Cultura Economica in 1956 was prohibited from circulating in Venezuela.
Effectively censored; yet Betancourt persisted.

Second term as president

A decade later, after Pérez Jiménez was ousted, Betancourt was elected president. Having inherited an empty treasury and enormous foreign debts from the spendthrift Pérez, Betancourt nevertheless managed to return the state to fiscal solvency despite the rock-bottom petroleum prices throughout his presidency.

In 1960 two important institutions were created by Juan Pablo Pérez, Betancourt's minister of energy: the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation (Corporación Venezolana de Petróleos — CVP), conceived to oversee the national petroleum industry, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...

), the international oil cartel that Venezuela established in partnership with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran. Considered a radical revolutionary idea at the time by its opponents, but essential to Venezuela's independence and fiscal solvency by a visionary nationalistic Betancourt.

At an annual oil convention in Cairo, Venezuela's envoy, fluent in Arabic, convinced oil producing Middle Eastern countries to sign a secret agreement that promoted unity and control of their own national oil resources; under the noses of the British and American corporations that dominated the oil industry globally and had funded the event. Planting the seed for OPEC
OPEC
OPEC is an intergovernmental organization of twelve developing countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC has maintained its headquarters in Vienna since 1965, and hosts regular meetings...

.

Agrarian reform

AD's land reform distributed unproductive private properties and public lands to halt the decline in agricultural production. Landowners who had their properties confiscated received generous compensation.

FALN guerrilla group

Betancourt also faced determined opposition from extremists and rebellious army units, yet he continued to push for economic and educational reform. A fraction split from the AD and formed the Leftist Revolutionary Movement (MIR). When leftists were involved in unsuccessful revolts at navy bases in 1962, Betancourt suspended civil liberties. Elements of the left then
formed the Armed Forces for National Liberation
Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional (Venezuela)
The Armed Forces of National Liberation was a Venezuelan guerrilla group formed to foment revolution against the democratically elected government of Rómulo Betancourt.-Background:...

 (FALN), a guerrilla army to fight him.

After numerous attacks, he finally arrested the MIR and Communist members of Congress
National Assembly of Venezuela
The National Assembly is the legislative branch of the Venezuelan government. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based...

. It became clear that a leftist Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

 had been arming the rebels, so Venezuela protested to the Organization of American States
Organization of American States
The Organization of American States is a regional international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States...

 (OAS). Yet it would not be the last time Caribbean military dictators tried to undo Betancourt's civilian government using violence and guerrilla tactics on his own soil, perhaps envious of Venezuela's oil prosperity in contrast to their islands' prevalent poverty.

Assassination attempt

Betancourt had denounced the dictatorship of Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...

's Rafael Trujillo. In turn, Trujillo had developed an obsessive personal hatred of Betancourt and supported many plots by Venezuelan exiles to overthrow him. This led the Venezuelan government to take its case against Trujillo to the OAS. Turning to diplomacy first over armed response to resolve the political conflict. That in turn infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his foreign agents to assassinate
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...

 Betancourt in Caracas. The June 24, 1960 attempt, in which the Venezuelan president was badly burned, inflamed world public opinion against Trujillo, who was in turn assassinated in the Dominican Republic only a year later.

Photos of a wounded but still living Betancourt were distributed around the world as proof he survived the assassination attempt that killed his head of security, and severely injured the driver. An incendiary device that was in a parked car was detonated as his presidential car drove by one of Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...

' main avenues shocking the nation. With both burned hands wrapped in bandages, Rómulo Betancourt walked out of the hospital, in front of a sea of photographers, looking more like a professional boxer ready to face his rivals; a victor survivor willing to continue the fight - which Betancourt did. This incident elevated him in the eyes of the public opinion, and helped to destroy one of his most ferocious Caribbean enemies at the same time.

Constitutional government cabinet (1959-1964)

Ministries
OFFICE NAME TERM
President Rómulo Betancourt 1959–1964
Home Affairs Luis Augusto Dubuc 1959–1962
  Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez , also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho , was a Venezuelan politician, President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. His first presidency was known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to...

1962–1963
  Manuel Mantilla 1963–1964
Outer Relations Ignacio Luis Arcaya 1959–1960
  Marcos Falcón Briceño 1960–1964
Finance José Antonio Mayobre 1959–1960
  Tomás Enrique Carrillo Batalla 1960–1961
  Andrés Germán Otero 1961–1964
Defense Josué López Hernández 1959–1961
  Antonio Briceño Linares 1961–1964
Development Lorenzo Fernández 1959–1961
  Godofredo González 1961–1963
  Hugo Pérez La Salvia 1963–1964
Public Works Santiago Hernández Ron 1959–1960
  Rafael De León Alvarez 1960–1962
  Leopoldo Sucre Figarella
Leopoldo Sucre Figarella
Leopoldo Sucre Figarella , was a Venezuelan politician and engineer. A member of the Sucre family Sucre Figarella served as Governor, Minister and Senator during his long and eventful political career. He was nicknamed "The Builder" and "The Czar of Guayana".-Early career:He was born in Tumeremo in...

 
1962–1964
Education Rafael Pizani 1959–1960
  Martín Pérez Guevara 1960–1961
  Reinaldo Leandro Mora 1961–1964
Justice Andrés Aguilar 1959–1962
  Miguel Ángel Landáez 1962–1963
  Ezequiel Monsalve 1963–1964
Mines and Hydrocarbons Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo
Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso , was a prominent Venezuelan diplomat, politician and lawyer primarily responsible for the inception and creation of OPEC.-Early career:...

1959–1963
  Arturo Hernández Grisanti 1963–1964
Labor Luis Hernández Solís 1959–1960
  Raúl Valera 1960–1963
  Alberto Aranguren Zamora 1963–1964
Communications Manuel López Rivas 1959–1960
  Juan Manuel Domínguez Chacín 1960
  Pablo Miliani 1960–1964
Agriculture Victor Manuel Giménez Landínez 1959–1963
  Miguel Rodríguez Viso 1963–1964
Health and Social Assistance Arnoldo Gabaldón 1959–1964
Secretary of Presidency Ramón José Velásquez
Ramón José Velásquez
Ramón José Velásquez Mujica is a Venezuelan political figure. He served as Acting president of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994. He is known as a historian, journalist, lawyer, politician and entertainer of companies for his knowledge of the "national life".Velásquez was born in Táchira,Venezuela...

1959–1963
  Mariano Picón Salas
Mariano Picón Salas
Mariano Federico Picón Salas, an influential Venezuelan diplomatic, cultural critic and writer of the 20th century, was born in Mérida on January 26, 1901 and died in Caracas on January 1, 1965. Among his books, his collection of essays on history, literary criticism and cultural history are...

1963–1964
Office of Coordination and Planification Manuel Pérez Guerrero 1959–1962
  Héctor Hurtado 1962–1964
CVG
Corporación Venezolana de Guayana
The Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana is a decentralized state-owned Venezuelan conglomerate, located in the Guayana Region in the southeast of the country. Its subsidiaries include the aluminium producer Alcasa....

Rafael Alfonzo Ravard 1960–1964


1963 elections

Perhaps one of the greatest of Betancourt's accomplishments, however, was the successful 1963 elections. Despite threats to disrupt the process, nearly 90 percent of the electorate participated on December 1st in what was the most honest election in Venezuela to that date. March 11, 1964 was a day of pride for the people of Venezuela as for the first time the presidential sash passed from one democratically elected chief executive to another. It should be noted prior to Betancourt changing the law, all presidents in Venezuela were elected by Congress - in typical republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

 model. Eleazar López was the first president of the country to pass the sash to another elected president, Isaías Medina.

He was Venezuela's first democratically-elected president to serve his full term, and was succeeded by Raúl Leoni
Raúl Leoni
Raúl Leoni Otero was President of Venezuela from 1964 until 1969. He fought against the dictators Juan Vicente Gómez and Marcos Pérez Jiménez, and was a charter member of the Acción Democrática party....

. It was Romulo Betancourt who established a democratic precedent for the nation that had been ruled by dictatorships for most of its history. Dictatorships supported by oil interests from abroad.

It was 'revolution' by popular vote, without historical reference until then; Betancourt created the political model that still survives in Venezuela today.

Betancourt Doctrine

The Venezuelan president's antipathy for nondemocratic rule was reflected in the so-called Betancourt Doctrine, which denied Venezuelan diplomatic recognition to any regime, right or left, that came to power by military force. Betancourt always defended, and represented, democratic values and principles in Latin America. This put him at odds with the military strongmen who came to dominate and define political perception of the region.
During his first message to Congress as President of Venezuela, on 12 February 1959, Betancourt said:

"...Regimes disrespectful of human rights, violating their citizen´s freedom, tyrannizing them with the backing of totalitarian political police, should be submitted to a rigorous sanitary cordon and eradicated, through collective pacification, from the Inter-American juridical community"


It was during the tense Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...

, between the United States and Cuba, the relationship between President Kennedy and President Betancourt became closer than ever. Establishing a direct phone link between the White House and Miraflores (Presidential Palace) since the Venezuelan president had ample experience on dealing, defeating and surviving, machinations of Caribbean-based dictators against democratic regimes. The USSR was flexing its muscle in the Caribbean using Castro's Cuba as its regional proxy creating a direct security threat both to Venezuela and the United States of America.

These conversations between both presidents were translated by Betancourt's only child, Virginia Betancourt Valverde, who served as interpreter and confidant to her father.

Later president Rafael Caldera
Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez was president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999.Caldera taught sociology and law at various universities before entering politics. He was a founding member of COPEI, Venezuela's Christian Democratic party...

 rejected the doctrine, which he thought had
served to isolate Venezuela in the world. A thesis that continues to be debated among academics and intellectuals who see in Betancourt not an isolationist but a courageous defender of democratic principles in the midst of adversity and ferreous enemies.

Later life

In 1964, Betancourt was awarded a lifetime seat
Senator for life
A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , 7 Italian Senators out of 322, 4 out of the 47 Burundian Senators and all members of the British House of Lords have lifetime tenure...

 in Venezuela's senate
National Assembly of Venezuela
The National Assembly is the legislative branch of the Venezuelan government. It is a unicameral body made up of a variable number of members, who are elected by "universal, direct, personal, and secret" vote partly by direct election in state-based voting districts, and partly on a state-based...

, due to status as a former president. After that he traveled to the United States, several Asian countries, and Europe where he lived first in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 (Italy) and later in Bern (Switzerland). In 1972 he returned to Venezuela to support the presidential candidacy of Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez , also known as CAP and often referred to as El Gocho , was a Venezuelan politician, President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. His first presidency was known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to...

 (his private secretary during the years of the Government Revolutionary Junta and Minister of Home Affairs between 1962–1963). A year later, Pérez was elected president.

In 1977 Betancourt supported the candidacy of Luis Piñerua Ordaz, who was to be later defeated in December, 1978 by Luis Herrera Campins
Luis Herrera Campins
Luis Antonio Herrera Campins was President of Venezuela from 1979 to 1984. He was elected to one five-year term in 1978. He was a member of the COPEI party.- Early Life and career:...

, candidate of COPEI
COPEI
Copei – Social Christian Party of Venezuela is a third way political party in Venezuela. The name stands for Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente...

. During the same year, the Spanish company Seix Barral published a new edition of Venezuela: Política y Petróleo (Venezuela: Oil & Politics), and the books El 18 de Octubre 1945 and América Latina: Democracia e Integración (Latin America: Democracy and Integration). Reinforcing Betancourt's image domestically, and in the region, as a pragmatic nationalist visionary.

His last days were dedicated to writing and to his wife Dr. Renee Hartmann. He died on 28 September 1981 in Doctors Hospital in New York City. On his death
US President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 made the following statement:

Books

  • Venezuela: Oil & Politics; 1978; by Rómulo Betancourt; ISBN 0395279453
  • Rómulo Betancourt; 1977; by Manuel Caballero
  • Rómulo en Berna; 1978; by Luis González Herrera
  • Rómulo Betancourt en la historia de Venezuela del siglo XX; 1980; by Ramón J. Velásquez, J.F. Sucre Figarella, Blas Bruni Celli
  • Rómulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela; 1981; by Robert J. Alexander; ISBN 0878554505
  • Rómulo y Yo; 1984; by Renée Hartmann; ISBN 8425316251
  • Rómulo; 1984 ; by Sanin
  • Rómulo Betancourt, Político sin ocaso; 1988 ; compilation book
  • Rómulo Betancourt, Político de Nación; 2004 ; by Manuel Caballero
    Manuel Caballero
    Manuel Antonio Caballero Agüero was a notable Venezuelan historian, journalist, best-selling author and professor of contemporary Venezuelan History at the Central University of Venezuela....

    ; ISBN 9803541544
  • Rómulo Betancourt; 2005 ; by María Teresa Romero; ISBN 9806915070

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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