Rómulo Betancourt was one of Venezuela's most important political figures
and led a tumultuous and highly controversial career in Latin American
politics. Periods of exile brought Betancourt into contact with various
Latin American countries as well as the United States, securing his
legacy as one of the few real international leaders to emerge in
twentieth-century Latin America.
As a young man he founded and led a number of radical student groups. In the
early 1930s while in Costa Rica he assisted with organizing the
country's communist party. In 1935, he founded the Organización
Venezolana, which later became the party Acción Democrática (AD).
He became president in 1945 by a military coup, and accomplished an
impressive agenda. His accomplishments included the declaration of universal suffrage, the institution of social reforms, and securing half of the profits generated by oil companies for Venezuela.
In 1948, Marcos Pérez Jiménez overthrew the elected president
Rómulo Gallegos, and Betancourt was forced into exile in New York, where
he was determined to expose to the world the political problems and
dictatorships that troubled Venezuela.
In 1960 two important institutions were created by Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso,
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), the international oil cartel that Venezuela
established in partnership with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran.
He was the first democratically-elected president to serve his full term,
and was succeeded by Raúl Leoni. Venezuela's political life after 1959
was uninterrupted civilian constitutional rule.
In 1973, Betancourt was awarded a lifetime seat in Venezuela's senate.
He died on September 28 in Doctors Hospital in New York City. On his death
US President Ronald Reagan made the following statement:
Introduction
First term as president
Exile in US
Second term as president
Economic problems
He returned a decade later, after Pérez Jiménez was ousted, and 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.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 Terroristic 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 (FALN), a terrorist
group.
After numerous terrorist acts, he finally arrested the MIR and Communist
members of Congress. It became clear that Fidel Castro had been arming
the terrorists, so Venezuela protested to the [[Organization of American
States]] (OAS). Trujillo's assassination attempt
Betancourt was also attacked from the right. They received help from Rafael
Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, who got involved in some
Venezuelan military circles. Betancourt had denounced the Trujillo
dictatorship; The fascist-like Trujillo developed an obsessive
personal hatred of Betancourt and supported plots of Venezuelan exiles to
overthrow him. This led the Venezuelan government to take its case against
Trujillo to the OAS. That in turn infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his
foreign agents to assassinate Betancourt. The attempt, on June 24,
1960, in which a military aide was killed and the president badly
burned, inflamed world opinion against Trujillo, who was assassinated
himself in 1961.1963 elections
Perhaps the greatest of all Betancourt's accomplishments, however, were the
successful 1963 elections. Despite threats to disrupt the process,
nearly 90 percent of the electorate participated on December 1 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 constitutionally elected chief executive
to another.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. Later president Caldera rejected the doctrine, which he thought had
served to isolate Venezuela in the world. Later life
Books
External links