(ENG C1) Venezuela

The discovery ____________________ massive oil deposits in Lake Maracaibo during World War I proved to be pivotal for Venezuela and transformed the basis of its economy from a heavy dependence on agricultural exports . It prompted an economic boom that lasted into the 1980s ; by 1935 , Venezuela's per capita gross domestic product was Latin America's highest . Gómez benefited handsomely from this , as corruption thrived , ____________________ at the same time , the new source of income helped him centralize the Venezuelan state and develop its authority .

____________________ remained the most powerful man in Venezuela until his death in 1935 , although at times he ceded the presidency to others . The gomecista dictatorship ( 1935 ? 1945 ) system largely continued under Eleazar López Contreras , but from 1941 , under Isaías Medina Angarita , was relaxed . Angarita granted a range of reforms , including the legalization of all political parties . After World War II , immigration ____________________ Southern Europe ( mainly from Spain , Italy , Portugal , and France ) and poorer Latin American countries markedly diversified Venezuelan society .

In 1945 , a civilian - military coup overthrew Medina Angarita and ushered in a three - year period of democratic rule ( 1945 ? 1948 ) under the mass membership party Democratic Action , initially under Rómulo Betancourt , until Rómulo Gallegos won the 1947 Venezuelan presidential election ( generally believed ____________________ be the first free and fair elections in Venezuela ) . Gallegos governed until overthrown ____________________ a military junta led by the triumvirate Luis Felipe Llovera Páez , Marcos Pérez Jiménez , and Gallegos' Defense Minister , Carlos Delgado Chalbaud , in the 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état .

The most powerful man in the military junta ( 1948 ? 1958 ) was Pérez Jiménez ( though Chalbaud was its titular president ) and was suspected of being behind the death in office of Chalbaud , who died in a bungled kidnapping in 1950 . When the junta unexpectedly lost the election it held ____________________ 1952 , it ignored the results and Pérez Jiménez was installed as president , where he remained until 1958 . The expansion of the Venezuelan economy in this period was based on the indebtedness of the Venezuelan nation and that was one of the causes of the economic crisis in Venezuela in the 1960s , in which important projects such ____________________ the Urban Center El Recreo de Marcel Brauer on Avenida Casanova in Sabana Grande district were paralyzed . [ 62 ]

____________________ the years of Pérez Jiménez's administration , the State intervened in areas of the economy that were traditionally carried out by private companies . The Pérez Jiménez government was characterized by its state capitalism and not by liberal capitalism . It was an antecedent of the populist and paternalistic economic regime of the later democratic regimes . The national private entrepreneurship increasingly had less space to grow and prosper . The State was the great capitalist ____________________ the Venezuela of Pérez Jiménez and was the largest national shareholder of major hotel chains such as Sheraton .

In the government of Pérez Jiménez , Venezuela's debt grew more than 25 times and went from 175 million to more than 4 , 500 million bolivares in just 5 years ( approximately 15 billion dollars in 2018 ) . The malaise over the debts of Venezuela reached the barracks and the national business . Pérez Jiménez responded that : " there is no debt , but commitments " . The Finance Minister failed to convince Pérez Jiménez to order the cancellation of debts . [ 65 ] ____________________ of 14 January 1958 , the Venezuelan business community decided to divorce itself completely from the regime , nine days before the collapse of the government . [ 61 ] The military dictator Pérez Jiménez was forced out on 23 January 1958 . In an effort to consolidate a young democracy , the three major political parties signed the Puntofijo Pact power - sharing agreement . The two first parties would dominate the political landscape for four decades .

During the presidencies of Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello and Raúl Leoni Otero ( 1964 ? 1969 ) in the 1960s , substantial guerilla movements occurred , including the Armed Forces of National Liberation and the Revolutionary Left Movement , which had split from AD in 1960 . Most of these movements laid down their arms under Rafael Caldera's first presidency ; Caldera had won the 1968 election for COPEI , being the first time a party other than Democratic Action took the presidency through a democratic election . The new democratic order had its antagonists . Betancourt suffered an attack planned by the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960 , and the leftists excluded from the Pact initiated an armed insurgency ____________________ organizing themselves in the Armed Forces of National Liberation , sponsored by the Communist Party and Fidel Castro . In 1962 they tried to destabilize the military corps , with failed revolts in Carúpano and Puerto Cabello . At the same time , Betancourt promoted a foreign policy , the Betancourt Doctrine , ____________________ which he only recognized elected governments by popular vote .

____________________ a result of the debt that Marcos Pérez Jiménez had left , an economic adjustment program was necessary in Venezuela . The Economic Recovery Plan of 1960 was formulated by Tomás Enrique Carrillo Batalla . The construction industry was revitalized through the " rediscount " of the Central Bank of Venezuela . The Economic Recovery Plan fulfilled its objectives and in 1964 , Venezuela was able to return ____________________ an anchored exchange rate , with free purchase and sale of foreign currency . This system lasted until the Venezuelan Black Friday of 1983 , although the model was already running out at the end of the seventies . The consolidation of the democratic system and the dissipation of fears of political radicalization of the country contributed to normalize the demand for foreign currency , stabilizing the parallel exchange rate .

____________________ much of the period between 1950 and 1973 , the Venezuelan economy was characterized by its stability and sustained strength , factors that contributed decisively to being able to maintain a fixed exchange rate without major inconveniences . In the period of Carlos Andrés Pérez , as a result of the Arab - Israeli war , the average price of a barrel of oil went from 3 . 71 to 10 . 53 dollars and continued to rise to exceed 29 dollars in 1981 . The income of the public sector went from 18 , 960 million bolivars in 1973 to 45 . 564 million in 1974 . The economic bonanza also had the characteristics of an economic bubble , but Venezuelans remember the " Ta barato , dame dos " . The increased inflow ____________________ funds to savings and loan entities and mortgage banks allowed an increase in the mortgage loan portfolio , which also tripled . In general , Venezuela was a prosperous country in the governments of Rómulo Betancourt , Rafael Caldera and Carlos Andrés Pérez 1974 . In 1975 the iron industry was nationalized and the following year the oil industry , creating Petróleos de Venezuela , S . A . ( PDVSA ) . Both Caldera and Pérez partially broke with the Betancourt Doctrine .

The election in 1973 of Carlos Andrés Pérez coincided with an oil crisis , in which Venezuela's income exploded as oil prices soared ; oil industries were nationalized in 1976 . This led to massive increases in public spending , but also increases in external debts , which continued into the 1980s ____________________ the collapse of oil prices during the 1980s crippled the Venezuelan economy . As the government started to devalue the currency in February 1983 to face its financial obligations , Venezuelans' real standards of living fell dramatically . A number of failed economic policies and increasing corruption in government led to rising poverty ____________________ crime , worsening social indicators , and increased political instability .

During the presidency of Luis Herrera Campins ( 1979 ? 1984 ) , important infrastructure works were completed , such as the Parque Central Complex ( which became the largest housing complex and the tallest towers in Latin America ) , Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex ( the largest cultural center in South America at that time ) , the Brígido Iriarte Stadium and the United Nations Park . Most of these works had been previously planned . Until the mid - eighties , the Venezuelan economy showed a very positive behavior , characterized by the absence of internal or external imbalances , high economic growth , largely due to the sustained and very high gross fixed investment ____________________ those years , 10 under unemployment and great price stability . This translated into sustained increases in the average real wage and an improvement in the condition of life .

The bolivar was devalued in February 1983 , unleashing a strong economic crisis , which hit investments in the most important financial centers of the Venezuelan capital , such as Sabana Grande . In the government of Jaime Lusinchi ( 1984 ? 1989 ) , an attempt was made to solve the problem . Unfortunately , the measures failed . ____________________ a long period of accelerated economic expansion that lasts for six decades ( value of the stock of homes by families ) , an extreme higher value is reached towards 1982 . From this historical value begins then a systematic fall that mounts to 26 hundred up to 2006 , and that configures a genuine unique experience in contemporary economic life . However , the economic deactivation of the country had begun to show its first signs in 1978 .

In the 1980s , the Presidential Commission for State Reform ( COPRE ) emerged as a mechanism of political innovation . Venezuela was preparing for the decentralization of its political system and the diversification of its economy , reducing the large size of the State . The COPRE operated as an innovation mechanism , also by incorporating issues into the political agenda that were generally excluded ____________________ public deliberation by the main actors of the Venezuelan democratic system . The most discussed topics were incorporated into the public agenda : decentralization , political participation , municipalization , judicial oder reforms and the role of the State in a new economic strategy . Unfortunately , the social reality of the country made the changes difficult to apply .

Economic crises in the 1980s and 1990s led to a political crisis in which hundreds died in the Caracazo riots of 1989 during the presidency of Carlos Andres Pérez , two attempted coups d'état in 1992 ( February and November ) by Hugo Chávez , and the impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez ( re - elected in 1988 ) for corruption in 1993 and the interim presidency ____________________ Ramón José Velásquez . Coup leader Hugo Chávez was pardoned in March 1994 by president Rafael Caldera , with a clean slate and his political rights reinstated . This let ____________________ later get the presidency continuously from 1999 until his death in 2013 , winning the elections ____________________ 1998 , 2000 , 2006 and 2012 and the presidential referendum of 2004 , with the only exception in 2002 of Pedro Carmona Estanga as a two - day de facto government and Diosdado Cabello Rondón as a few - hours interim president .