Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (
February 22,
1908 -
September 28,
1981), "the father of\nVenezuelan democracy", was
President of
Venezuela from
1945 to
1948 and\nagain from
1959 to
1964. He survived an assassination attempt ordered by
Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the
Dominican Republic.
Introduction
Rómulo Betancourt was one of Venezuela's most important political figures\nand led a tumultuous and highly controversial career in Latin American\npolitics. Periods of exile brought Betancourt into contact with various\nLatin American countries as well as the United States, securing his\nlegacy as one of the few real international leaders to emerge in\ntwentieth-century Latin America.
As a young man he founded and led a number of radical student groups. In the\nearly 1930s while in Costa Rica he assisted with organizing the\ncountry's communist party. In 1935, he founded the Organización\nVenezolana, which later became the party Acción Democrática (AD).
First term as president
He became president in 1945 by a military coup, and accomplished an\nimpressive 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.
Exile in US
In 1948, Marcos Pérez Jiménez overthrew the elected president\nRómulo Gallegos, and Betancourt was forced into exile in New York, where\nhe was determined to expose to the world the political problems and\ndictatorships that troubled Venezuela.
Second term as president
Economic problems
\nHe returned a decade later, after Pérez Jiménez was ousted, and was elected\npresident. Having inherited an empty treasury and enormous foreign debts\nfrom the spendthrift Pérez, Betancourt nevertheless managed to return the\nstate to fiscal solvency despite the rock-bottom petroleum prices throughout\nhis presidency.
In 1960 two important institutions were created by Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso,\nBetancourt's minister of energy: the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation\n(Corporación Venezolana de Petróleos--CVP), conceived to oversee the\nnational petroleum industry, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting\nCountries (OPEC), the international oil cartel that Venezuela\nestablished in partnership with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran.
Agrarian reform
\nAD's land reform distributed unproductive private properties and public\nlands to halt the decline in agricultural production. Landowners who had\ntheir properties confiscated received generous compensation.
FALN Terroristic group
\nBetancourt also faced determined opposition from extremists and rebellious\narmy units, yet he continued to push for economic and educational reform. A\nfraction split from the AD and formed the Leftist Revolutionary Movement\n(MIR). When leftists were involved in unsuccessful revolts at navy bases in\n1962, Betancourt suspended civil liberties. Elements of the left then\nformed the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), a terrorist\ngroup. \nAfter numerous terrorist acts, he finally arrested the MIR and Communist\nmembers of Congress. It became clear that Fidel Castro had been arming\nthe terrorists, so Venezuela protested to the Organization of American States (OAS).
Trujillo's assassination attempt
\nBetancourt was also attacked from the right. They received help from Rafael\nTrujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, who got involved in some\nVenezuelan military circles. Betancourt had denounced the Trujillo\ndictatorship; The fascist-like Trujillo developed an obsessive\npersonal hatred of Betancourt and supported plots of Venezuelan exiles to\noverthrow him. This led the Venezuelan government to take its case against\nTrujillo to the OAS. That in turn infuriated Trujillo, who ordered his\nforeign agents to assassinate Betancourt. The attempt, on June 24,\n1960, in which a military aide was killed and the president badly\nburned, inflamed world opinion against Trujillo, who was assassinated\nhimself in 1961.
1963 elections
\nPerhaps the greatest of all Betancourt's accomplishments, however, were the\nsuccessful 1963 elections. Despite threats to disrupt the process,\nnearly 90 percent of the electorate participated on December 1 in what was\nthe most honest election in Venezuela to that date. March 11, 1964\nwas a day of pride for the people of Venezuela as for the first time the\npresidential sash passed from one constitutionally elected chief executive\nto another.
He was the first democratically-elected president to serve his full term,\nand was succeeded by Raúl Leoni. Venezuela's political life after 1959\nwas uninterrupted civilian constitutional rule.
Betancourt Doctrine
\nThe Venezuelan president's antipathy for nondemocratic rule was reflected in\nthe so-called Betancourt Doctrine, which denied Venezuelan diplomatic\nrecognition to any regime, right or left, that came to power by military\nforce. Later president Rafael Caldera rejected the doctrine, which he thought had\nserved to isolate Venezuela in the world.
Later life
In 1973, Betancourt was awarded a lifetime seat in Venezuela's senate.
He died on September 28, 1981 in Doctors Hospital in New York City. On his death\nUS President Ronald Reagan made the following statement:\n:"I speak for all Americans in expressing our heartfelt sadness at the death of Romulo Betancourt. While he was first and foremost a Venezuelan patriot, Romulo Betancourt was an especially close friend of the United States. During the 1950's he considered the United States a refuge while he was in exile, and we were proud to receive him. We are honored that this courageous man whose life was dedicated to the principles of liberty and justice -- a man who fought dictatorships of the right and the left -- spent his final days on our shores. We join the Venezuelan people and those who love freedom around the world in mourning his death."
Books
\n*Romulo Betancourt and the Transformation of Venezuela; 1981; by Robert Jackson Alexander; ISBN 0878554505
External links
\n* [1] 1Up Info about the Triumph of Democracy
Betancourt, Rómulo
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