Carlos Andrés Pérez
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| Carlos Andrés Pérez | |
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| In office March 12, 1974 – March 12, 1979 February 2, 1989- May 20, 1993 |
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| Preceded by | Rafael Caldera (1974) Jaime Lusinchi (1989) |
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| Succeeded by | Luis Herrera Campins (1979) Ramón José Velásquez(1993) |
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| Born | October 27, 1922 Rubio, Táchira, Venezuela |
| Political party | Acción Democrática |
| Spouse | Blanca Rodriguez, Cecilia Matos |
Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (born October 27, 1922), best known as CAP was President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993.
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[edit] Political life
Carlos Andres Perez' political life starts at the age of 15, when he became an active member of the National Democratic Party, a clandestine political organization fighting against the dictatorship. He also co-operates with the first labor unions of said region. When he moved to Caracas, in 1939, he started an ascendant political career as a youth leader and founder of the Democratic Action party, in which he would play a very important role during the 20th century.
Finally, the dictatorship was overthrown in November 1945, and Carlos Andres Perez was appointed Private Secretary to the Junta President, Mr. Romulo Betancourt, and becomes Cabinet Secretary by 1946. However, in 1948, when the opposition overthrows the democratic government, Carlos Andres Perez had to go to exile (Cuba, Costa Rica and Panama). He temporarily entered Venezuela secretly in order to complete special missions in his fight against dictatorship. He was imprisoned in various occasions and passed more than 2 years in jail. In 1958, after the fall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, he returns to Venezuela, and begins to participate in the reorganization of the Democratic Action Party. He was appointed Minister of the Interior and made his mark as a tough, guerrilla-busting interior minister and canny machine politician.
In December 1973, Carlos Andres Perez was elected President by an overwhelming vote. His election campaign became historical: he visited nearly all villages and cities of Venezuela by foot and walked more than 5800 kilometers in his presidential campaign.
In his first term as president he was praised by for taking steps to nationalize the petroleum and iron ore industries in order to control profits. He used the raising incomes from the oil industry for sustainable development programs, among the famous scholarship program "Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho", which allowed more than 60,000 young Venezuelans from the working class to study in the best universities abroad. Following his policy, sustainable development is only possible through the education of the people. As first head of state, he was honored with the "Earth Care" award for his contribution of environmental protection. Carlos Andres Perez' international policy had become very important, as he called for the integration of Third World countries to regional organizations in order to strengthen their development and in order for them to gain importance in relation to the industrialized countries. He notably saw the OPEC as an instrument for ALL underdeveloped countries to improve their conditions towards first world countries. Nevertheless, he maintained excellent relations with European and North American governments during his presidency.
After his first presidency, Carlos Andres Perez made a worldwide effort to create an independent, non-governmental Commission, integrated by representatives of Third World countries. Carlos Andres Perez worked with Tanzania's former President, Julius Nyerere, in the organization this South-South Commission.
He actively participated in the Socialist International, whose Vice-President he was for three consecutive terms, under the presidency of Willy Brandt from Germany. Willy Brandt and Carlos Andres Perez, together with Francisco Pena Gomez, a political leader from the Dominican Republic, expanded the activities of the Socialist International from Europe to Latin America. Carlos Andres Perez also participated in democratization process in Spain, as he brought Felipe Gonzalez, who was living in exile, back to Spain in a private flight and thus strengthened the PSOE. In 1988, he became a Member of the Council of Freely-Elected Heads of Government, established by the former President of the United States, H.E. Jimmy Carter. Carlos Andres Perez was elected Chairman of the Harvard University Conference on Foreign Debt in Latin America, in September 1989, and receives the Henry and Nancy Bartels Award on World Affairs at Cornell University.
In February 1989, at the beginning of his second term as President, he accepted an International Monetary Fund proposal known as the Washington consensus. In return for accepting this proposal, the International Monetary Fund offered Venezuela a loan for 4.5 billion US dollars. Poor economic conditions led to attempts to revolutionize the political and economic structure of Venezuela, but were to late to prevent massive popular protests in Caracas, the capital, that were triggered by the rise in food prices. Carlos Andrés Pérez crushed the protest with the national guard, causing thousands of deaths, and resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency. The protest is now referred to as the Caracazo.
In February 1992, his government survived two bloody coup attempts. The first attempt took place February 4, 1992, and was led by Lieutenant-Coronel Hugo Chavez, who was later elected President. Hugo Chavez' troops occupied the presidential palace. Carlos Andres Perez escaped through the garage of the palace and flew to a TV Channel, from where he was able to control the attempt. The second attempt took place on November 27, 1992, and was controlled by Perez shortly.
In March 1993, Attorney General Escobar Salom, a long-term personal enemy of President Perez, introduced action against Perez for malversation of 250 million bolivars belonging to the secret party, funds which were actually used for supporting the electoral and democratization process in Nicaragua. On May 20, 1993, the Supreme Court considered the accusation sufficient, and nacional congress decided Perez' suspension as President of the Republic. He was imprisoned and sentenced in a politically motived sentence to two years of prison on May 1994 for malversation of funds of the secret party.
In 1998 he was imprisoned again, this time for holding joint bank accounts with his wife, Cecilia Matos. As he was elected Senator of the State of Táchira in 1998, he gained his liberty. Carlos Andres Perez lost this position when Chavez dissolved the Senate as an institution and created a unique National Assembly. Carlos Andres then left Venezuela and went into exile.
[edit] Presidential Elections results
| Venezuelan Presidential election 1973[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venezuelan Presidential election 1988 | ||||||||||||||||||
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[edit] Personal life
At the age of 26 he married his cousin Blanca Rodriguez with whom he has 6 children. After his divorce, Pérez got married to Cecilia Matos in 1980. The couple has two daughters, Maria Francia and Cecilia Victoria Perez. Perez is living since 1998 in exile in the Dominican Republic and in the United States.
[edit] See also
 Presidents of Venezuela  |
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| Mendoza | Bolívar | Bolívar | Páez | Vargas | Narvarte | Carreño | Soublette | Páez | Soublette | J.T. Monagas | J.G. Monagas | J.T. Monagas | Gual | J. Castro | Gual | Tovar | Gual | Páez | Falcón | Bruzual | Villegas | J.R. Monagas | Villegas | Guzmán | Linares | Varela | Guzmán | Crespo | Guzmán | H. López | Rojas | Andueza | Villegas | Crespo | Andrade | C. Castro | Gómez | Márques | Gómez | J. Pérez | Gómez | E. López | Medina | Betancourt | Gallegos | Delgado Chalbaud | Suárez Flamerich | Pérez Jiménez | Larrazábal | Sanabria | Betancourt | Leoni | Caldera | C. Pérez | Herrera | Lusinchi | C. Pérez | Velásquez | Caldera | Chávez | Carmona | Cabello | Chávez |
