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116-570: COPEI was founded on 13 January 1946 by Rafael Caldera . COPEI, Democratic Action (AD) and Democratic Republican Union (URD) signed the Puntofijo Pact in October 1958, establishing themselves as the dominant political parties in the country. Signatories and supporters of the Pact stated that it was created to preserve democracy and to share governorship between parties. Critics believed that

232-407: A president-for-life and the power to name his successor. In 1828 his supporters called on him to assume dictatorial powers and "save the republic". However, the political turmoil continued and Bolívar stepped down in 1830, going into self-imposed exile and dying shortly thereafter. "He is revered as the one person who made the greatest contribution to Spanish American independence" and admired by both

348-588: A century; and Porfirio Díaz of Mexico. Rosas and Díaz were military men, who continued to rely on armed forces to maintain themselves in power. This region was vulnerable to stronger powers, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom. Cuba remained in the hands of the Spanish crown until 1898. The United States seized a huge part of Mexico. Britain attempted to set up a protectorate on

464-560: A comprehensive analysis of the life and works of Bello's literary, linguistic, legal, historic, philosophical, and political texts. This book received an award from the Venezuelan National Academy of Language in 1935, and has remained an indispensable reference for scholarship studies on the most prominent Venezuelan man-of-letters of the 19th century. A year later, Venezuelan President López Contreras took notice of newspaper op-ed pieces about labor issues written by

580-528: A constituent assembly during the first year of his administration, reflect how consequential Congress' dismissal of this reform bill would eventually become. The most memorable and controversial speeches Caldera delivered as Senator came in February 1989, at the wake of the bloody riots in Caracas on 27 February, known as " Caracazo ," and in February, 4 of 1992, after the failed military coup . "The country

696-601: A constitution, as "constitutional dictators". There were a number of strongmen who went beyond raw struggles for power and its spoils and established "integrative dictatorships". These regimes attempted to curtail centrifugal forces, often termed "federalism", where regions or states of a nation-state had more autonomy and instead established the hegemony of the central government. According to political scientist Peter H. Smith , these include Juan Manuel de Rosas in Argentina; Diego Portales of Chile, whose system lasted nearly

812-644: A coup under the Plan of Tuxtepec and became president of Mexico 1876–1880, succeeded by his military and political compadre Manuel González (1880–1884) and returned to the presidency until he was overthrown in 1911 in the Mexican Revolution. During the decade-long civil war, a number of regional caudillos arose. Pascual Orozco helped oust Díaz at the early stage of the Revolution, but then turned against Francisco I. Madero , who had been elected to

928-429: A former member of Pérez' ministerial cabinet, and an outspoken critic of Caldera, argues that despite these efforts, Caldera's administration was however "particularly ineffectual in bringing to justice the many regulators and bankers responsible for the country's massive banking crisis". Notwithstanding federal budget limitations, Caldera's administration developed major infrastructure projects, including two water dams

1044-500: A growing consumer market in the United States. In Guatemala Justo Rufino Barrios ruled as a Liberal autocrat and expanded coffee cultivation. Fictional Hispanic American caudillos , sometimes based on real historical figures, are important in literature. Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez published two works with strongmen as main characters: The Autumn of the Patriarch and The General in his Labyrinth ,

1160-613: A legacy that has influenced political movements in the modern era. The term is often used pejoratively by critics of a regime. However, Spain's General Francisco Franco (1936–1975) proudly took the title as his own during and after his military overthrow of the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Spanish censors during his rule attacked publishers who applied the term to Hispanic American strongmen. Caudillos' exercise of power

1276-898: A military hero of the French intervention, who challenged Juárez and Lerdo by attempting rebellions, the second of which, the Plan of Tuxtepec , was successful in 1876. Juárez and Lerdo removed some caudillos from office, but this prompted them to rebel. These included Trinidad García de la Cadena in Zacatecas , Luis Mier y Terán in Veracruz , Juan Haro in Tampico , Juan N. Méndez in Puebla, Vicente Jiménez in Guerrero, and Juan Cortina in Matamoros . "That they slowly gathered around Porfirio Díaz

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1392-702: A new governing board. During Caldera's first presidency, a total of 291,233 housing units were built. In terms of infrastructure and public buildings, some of the most important works completed during his first administration include: Poliedro de Caracas , the buildings for the Ministry of Education, the Courts of Law, and the Central Bank; the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, and the Ríos Reyna Theatre of

1508-652: A number of examples of continuismo in Hispanic America whereby presidents continue in office beyond the legal term limits, with constitutional revision, plebiscites, and the creation of family dynasties, such as the Somoza family in Nicaragua. A major example of a modernizing caudillo of the late nineteenth century is Díaz (r. 1876–1911), whose period of control is known as the Porfiriato . His slogan

1624-567: A plethora of bureaucratic institutions that prevented personalist rule. Historian John Lynch argues that the rise of caudillos in Spanish America is rooted not in the distant Spanish past but in the immediate context of the Spanish American wars of independence . The wars overthrew colonial rule and left a power vacuum in the early nineteenth century. Caudillos were very influential in the history of Spanish America and left

1740-403: A policy that allowed the armed left to lay down their arms and participate in politics under democratic rules, was one of the most important achievements of Caldera's first presidency. This pardon effectively put an end to the guerrilla warfare which had plagued the country for ten years, costing many lives. A key distinction between Caldera's first government and those of his predecessors lay in

1856-497: A royalist general-turned-insurgent Agustín de Iturbide . In Spanish America, new sovereign states grappled with the question of balancing a central authority, usually in the hands of the traditional elites, with some kind of representation of the new "citizenry" of the republics. Constitutions were written laying out the division of powers, but the rule of personalist strongmen, caudillos, dominated. Dictatorial powers were granted to some caudillos , nominally ruling as presidents under

1972-420: A rural area that lacked any institutions of the state, and where the environment was one of violence and anarchy, a caudillo could impose order, often by using violence himself to achieve it. His local control as a strongman needed to be maintained by assuring the loyalty of his followers, so his bestowing of material rewards reinforced his own position. Caudillos could also maintain their position by protecting

2088-436: A steep decrease in oil prices, the economic recession and high inflation of 1993, and a huge banking crisis. The fiscal deficit forced Caldera's government to apply a severe austerity plan that included a ten per cent cut of the federal budget in 1994 and, simultaneously, a reform of fiscal legislation and the creation of SENIAT , a new tax collection agency. In January 1994, less than a month before Rafael Caldera's inauguration,

2204-643: A strong central state and defense of traditional institutional structures, particularly the Mexican Army and the Roman Catholic Church. Many regional strongmen were in the Federalist-Liberal camp, which supported local control and the continuation of their power. The quintessential Mexican caudillo , who gained national power for decades, was Santa Anna, who was initially a Liberal but became a Conservative and sought strengthening of

2320-453: A temporary float, abolished controls on current and capital transactions, eliminated price controls (except for medicines), and strengthened the social safety net". In 1997, gross domestic product ( GDP ) grew above five per cent and inflation rate was cut in half. The 1997 Asian financial crisis , however, brought oil prices to dramatic low levels, forcing government to make large budget cuts. A noteworthy achievement in this administration

2436-564: A war-torn Paraguay." In the late nineteenth century, regimes in Spanish America were more stable and often less dominated by military men. Foreign investors, particularly the British, began building infrastructure in countries of greatest interest to the UK's economic needs. Such projects included railways, telegraph lines, and port facilities, which cut transportation time and costs and sped up communications. Stable political regimes that could ensure

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2552-412: Is a form considered authoritarian . Most societies have had personalist leaders at times, but Hispanic America has had many more, the majority of whom were not self-described caudillos . However, scholars have applied the term to a variety of Hispanic-American leaders. Since Spanish American independence in the early nineteenth century, the region has been noted for its number of caudillos and

2668-445: Is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power . There is no precise English translation for the term, though it is often used interchangeably with " military dictator ," " warlord " and " strongman ". The term is historically associated with Spain and Hispanic America , after virtually all of the regions in the latter won independence in the early nineteenth century. The roots of caudillismo may be tied to

2784-471: Is the story of the rise of Porfirian Mexico." Simón Bolívar , the foremost leader of independence in Spanish America, attempted to recreate the Viceroyalty of New Granada in the nation of Gran Colombia . As with other areas of Spanish America, centrifugal forces caused the country to fragment into separate nation-states. Bolivar saw the need for political stability, which could be put into effect with

2900-609: The jefe máximo ( maximum chief ), the power behind the presidency in a period known as the Maximato (1928–1934); PNR's iteration as the Institutional Revolutionary Party dominated Mexican politics until 2000 and functioned as a brake on the personalist power of regional caudillos in Mexico. With the improvement of transportation, tropical products such as coffee and bananas could be transported to

3016-509: The 1998 Venezuelan presidential election . With the election of Chávez, Venezuela entered into a period of a dominant-party system led by his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) . In the 2000 legislative elections COPEI won a meager five of 165 seats in the National Assembly , with the party receiving 5.10% of valid votes. In the 2005 legislative elections COPEI staged an electoral boycott and did not win any seats in

3132-783: The Inter-Parliamentary Union from 1979 to 1982. In 1979, he was elected President of the World Congress of Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, which met in Rome under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. A year later, Caldera presided over the International Committee in charge of preparing an international agreement for the establishment of

3248-708: The International Labour Organization (ILO), an affiliated agency of the League of Nations, visited Venezuela in 1936 to review the law. He worked closely with Caldera, then Venezuela's first ILO correspondent. Jenks later stated that the International Labor Code published under his guidance on the eve of the Second World War, contained several topics that were arranged in a manner that had originally been employed in

3364-678: The University for Peace , approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 5 December 1980. In March 1987, Caldera was invited by Pope John Paul II to deliver a speech before the College of Cardinals to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Papal Encyclical Populorum Progressio . A leading theme in his speeches and conferences during these years was the need to find solutions to

3480-493: The "architect" of the 1961 Constitution, he was called upon by leaders of all Venezuelan parties to defend its principles, validity and timeliness. Accordingly, he was chosen to deliver the commemorative speeches before special joint sessions of Congress on the 15th (1976) and 25th (1986) anniversaries of the 1961 Constitution. In 1985, he was appointed President of the Bicameral Congress Commission for

3596-620: The December 1957 plebiscite, Caldera was exiled by the Pérez Jiménez dictatorship in January 1958. He travelled to New York City and was greeted by Rómulo Betancourt and Jóvito Villalba. His exile, however, only lasted a few days since Marcos Pérez Jiménez was deposed by a civil revolt and military coup on 23 January 1958. Upon returning to Venezuela, the three leaders signed the Puntofijo Pact , named after Caldera's residence where it

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3712-487: The Dominican Republic ( Desiderio Arias , Cipriano Bencosme), Paraguay ( Alfredo Stroessner ), Argentina ( Juan Perón and other military strongmen), and Chile ( Augusto Pinochet ). Caudillos have been the subject of literature in Spanish America. Hispanic America is not unique in having strong leaders emerge during times of turmoil. The cause of their emergence in Spanish America is generally seen to be in

3828-493: The Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense. On 3 October 1970, after weeks of violent student protests, and reports of weapons and explosive materials hidden inside the university campus, Caldera intervened Central University of Venezuela in order to protect and safeguard the life of students, professors and university employees. Once peace was restored on campus, the university regained its autonomy and held elections for

3944-575: The Jesuit-run Catholic school San Ignacio de Loyola, where he completed his secondary education at the age of fifteen. The following year he began law studies at the Central University of Venezuela . As a young university student, Caldera exhibited a precocious intellectual brilliance. At the age of nineteen, and after studying the 26 volumes of Andrés Bello 's collected works, Caldera published his first book, Andres Bello ,

4060-1122: The José Antonio Páez water dam in Mérida, Cumaripa in Yaracuy, and the third and four phases of the Guri Project in Guayana. After leaving the presidency of Venezuela, Caldera continued both scholarly and political pursuits. He served in the Venezuelan Senate as all former presidents were granted lifelong appointments to the Senate under 1961 Constitution. During this period Caldera was appointed to several important leadership positions in international organizations. Hailed for his role in maintaining democracy and stability in an era when most other Latin American countries experienced political upheaval, Caldera served as President of

4176-1293: The Macagua II in Guayana and the Taguaza in Caracas; the regional central aqueduct in Valencia; the Mérida-El Vigía superhighway and portions of the Centro-Occidental, José Antonio Páez, and Rómulo Betancourt highways. This administration also concluded Line 3 of the Caracas Metro , the Jacobo Borges and the Cruz-Diez museums, and brought to near completion the Caracas- Cúa railroad and the Yacambú-Quíbor hydrological complex. Caudillo A caudillo ( / k ɔː ˈ d iː ( l ) j oʊ , k aʊ ˈ -/ kaw- DEE(L) -yoh, kow- , Spanish: [kawˈðiʎo] ; Old Spanish : cabdillo , from Latin capitellum , diminutive of caput "head")

4292-637: The Mexican Constitution of 1917 , leading to the Cristero War , a failed major uprising under the leadership of some regional caudillos, including Saturnino Cedillo of San Luis Potosí . Obregón was elected again in 1928, but was assassinated before he could again resume the presidency. In 1929, Plutarco Elías Calles founded a political party, then known as the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (PNR), and became

4408-539: The Mosquito Coast of Central America. The two strongmen of this early century were Antonio López de Santa Anna in Mexico and Rafael Carrera in Guatemala. Mexico began its revolt against Spain in 1810, gaining independence in 1821. Political divisions in the post-independence period were labeled federalist, seeking a weak central government and often associated with liberalism , and centralist, who sought

4524-525: The National Assembly. In the 2010 parliamentary election , COPEI was part of the broad oppositional Coalition for Democratic Unity and won eight of the 165 seats. Prior to the 2015 Venezuelan parliamentary election , the pro-government Supreme Tribunal of Justice designated new leaders of COPEI, leading some to state that the party was infiltrated by the PSUV. By 2017, Caracas Chronicles said

4640-728: The National Constituent Assembly, inaugurated on 17 December of that year. This legislative body had the task of drafting a new Constitution guided by the principles of the October Revolution . Venezuelans from every corner of the country came to admire the rhetorical skills of the young politician. Venezuelans were able to listen to Caldera's speeches after Andrés Eloy Blanco , President of the National Constituent Assembly , granted Caldera's request to allow live radio broadcast of

4756-454: The North in 1915 after Villa had broken with Carranza. Obregón and fellow Sonoran generals Plutarco Elías Calles and Adolfo de la Huerta overthrew Carranza in 1920 under the Plan of Agua Prieta , with the presidency in the 1920s going in turn from de la Huerta, to Obregón, to Calles, and back to Obregón. During Calles's presidency (1924–1928), he stringently enforced the anticlerical laws of

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4872-597: The Pact allowed signing parties to limit control over Venezuela's government to themselves. URD would later leave the pact in 1962 following Cuba's removal from the Organization of American States , leaving governing of Venezuela to COPEI and AD. The Puntofijo system ultimately created a network of patronage for both parties. Caldera was elected president in December 1968 and for the first time in Venezuela's history, opposition parties transferred power peacefully. COPEI

4988-628: The Presidency, which he achieved in 1998 . Rafael Caldera Rodríguez, the son of Rafael Caldera Izaguirre and Rosa Sofía Rodríguez Rivero, was born on 24 January 1916, in San Felipe , Venezuela . His mother having died when he was two and a half years-old, Caldera was raised by his maternal aunt María Eva Rodríguez Rivero and her husband Tomás Liscano Giménez. Caldera attended elementary school in his native San Felipe and later in Caracas , at

5104-427: The Pérez Jiménez military dictatorship (1952–1958), Caldera was expelled from Universidad Central de Venezuela and arrested several times. On 3 August 1955, agents of the National Security, a large secret police force led by Pedro Estrada that hunted down opponents and ran notorious concentration camps, threw a bomb into Caldera's home, endangering the life of his youngest child, then nine months-old. On 20 August 1957, he

5220-400: The Reform of the Labor Law. After years of deliberations with workers, legal experts, labor unions, and representatives from industry and commerce chambers, the bill was presented in 1989 and passed by Congress at the end of 1990. In June 1989, Caldera was appointed President of the Bicameral Congress Commission for the Reform of the Constitution. The reform project prepared by the commission

5336-408: The Republic". If the constitution put formal limits on presidential power and term limits, caudillos could bend or break the rules to maintain power, a practice dubbed continuismo . Ideologically, caudillos could be either liberal or conservative . Liberalism had an advantage in the post-independence period, drawing on the ideas of the liberators and creating the institutional frameworks of

5452-484: The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex, in Caracas; the general hospitals of Maracay , Coro , Mérida , San Carlos , Valle de la Pascua , Chiquinquirá in Maracaibo and Miguel Pérez Carreño and Los Magallanes de Catia in Caracas; major highways such as Cota Mil and La Araña-Caricuao in Caracas, Barquisimeto-Yaritagua, Valencia-Campo de Carabobo and Barcelona-Crucero de Maturín; airports La Chinita in Maracaibo, Santiago Mariño in Porlamar and Las Piedras in Paraguaná ;

5568-473: The Venezuelan draft Labor Code. During his university years, Caldera became actively engaged in student politics. He joined the Venezuelan Federation of Students (FEV), which was led by students who had revolted in 1928 against the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez and were known as the Generation of 28 . Although significantly younger than his peers, Caldera courageously split from this student federation after its leadership called for anticlerical reforms demanding

5684-417: The annual national budget and an alarming 13 percent of the gross domestic product. Additional bank failures continued throughout the year and into 1995". In agreement with the International Monetary Fund , Caldera implemented in 1996 a new economic plan, called Agenda Venezuela  [ es ] , which "increased domestic fuel prices, liberalized interest rates, unified the exchange rate system under

5800-449: The area of foreign policy. President Caldera restored bilateral relations with the Soviet Union and the socialist nations of Eastern Europe, as well as with a number of South American nations that had fallen under military dictatorships, including Argentina , Panama , and Peru . This policy, known as "pluralistic solidarity", was a reversion of his predecessor's Betancourt Doctrine . Caldera took advantage of momentous developments in

5916-490: The authoritarian rule of conservatives, backed by the landowning class. Although he never sought the presidency, cabinet minister Diego Portales (1793–1837) is credited with creating a strong, centralized regime that lasted 30 years. In general, Chile prospered with an export-oriented economy based on agriculture and mining, an exception to most of the Spanish-American regimes. In the former Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata , political instability and violence were more typical of

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6032-599: The central government. Following the Mexican–American War , regional caudillos such as Juan Álvarez of the state of Guerrero and Santiago Vidaurri of Nuevo León - Coahuila ousted Santa Anna in the Revolution of Ayutla , bringing Liberals to power. Álvarez follows the pattern of the "folk caudillo ", whom historian François Chevalier calls a "good cacique , [who] protected the mainly indigenous and mestizo peasants of Guerrero, who in turn gave him their loyalty". Álvarez briefly served as President of Mexico, returning to his home state, leaving ideological liberals to institute

6148-459: The century. Dissatisfaction with the established governmental system of patronage increased, culminating in the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts led by Hugo Chávez . For the 1993 Venezuelan general election , COPEI passed over choosing Caldera as their candidate. Caldera would afterwards win the election through his newly founded National Convergence party. Soon after being elected, Caldera freed Chávez, who became Caldera's successor following

6264-444: The closer power of the United States. Although elections were held in Mexico at regular intervals, they were by nature not democratic. The huge rural, illiterate, and mostly indigenous populations were more to be feared by the government than as a source for regime support. When Díaz failed to find a political solution to his succession, the Mexican Revolution erupted after the fraudulent 1910 general election . Diaz came to power by

6380-428: The country to spread the ideas of his newly created party. The renowned Venezuelan novelist Rómulo Gallegos , candidate of the social democrat party AD (Democratic Action), won this election. Caldera also ran for Congress and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the period 1948–1953. His congressional term, however, was interrupted after Gallegos was ousted by a coup d'état on 24 November 1948. In 1952, Caldera

6496-403: The coup was completed and cemented his position as president by quashing a counter-coup by Velasco. During his presidency, Belzu instituted several reforms to the country's economy in an effort to redistribute wealth more equitably. He rewarded the work of the poor and dispossessed. Like Paraguay ’s Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia , Belzu chose to enact the aforementioned welfare programs because

6612-401: The debt crisis that gravely affected most third-world countries. His main concern was to denounce the injustice of placing the heavy burden of servicing the debt on the shoulders of the most impoverished and vulnerable people of third-world countries. As tenured Senator in the Venezuelan National Congress, Caldera chose to use the speaker podium exclusively on matters of national importance. As

6728-425: The destruction of the Spanish colonial state structure after the wars of independence, and in the importance of leaders from the independence struggles for providing government in the post-independence period, when nation-states came into being. Historian John Lynch states that "Before 1810 the caudillo was unknown. … The caudillo entered history as a local hero whom larger events promoted to a military chieftain." In

6844-648: The duration of their rule. The early nineteenth century is sometimes called "The Age of Caudillos", with Juan Manuel de Rosas , dictator of Argentina, and his contemporary in Mexico, Antonio López de Santa Anna , dominating national politics. Weak nation-states in Spanish America fostered the continuation of caudillismo from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century. The formation of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1929 effectively ended caudillismo . Men characterized as caudillos have ruled in Cuba ( Gerardo Machado , Fulgencio Batista , Fidel Castro ), Panama ( Omar Torrijos , Manuel Noriega ),

6960-432: The era of La Reforma . During the era of the Mexican Reform and the French intervention in Mexico , there were a number of generals who had regional personal followings. Important figures whose local power had consequences nationally included Mariano Escobedo in San Luis Potosí ; Ramón Corona in Jalisco and Durango ; and Porfirio Díaz in parts of Veracruz, Puebla, and Oaxaca. There were other caudillos whose power

7076-547: The era. In Argentina, Juan Manuel de Rosas (r. 1829–1852) dominated the Argentine confederation. He came from a wealthy landowning family, but also acquired large tracts of land in Buenos Aires Province . Rosas despised "the principles of political democracy and liberty [and] provided order in a region that had known near-anarchy since independence". During his two-decade reign, Rosas rose to power and created an empire. He used his military experience to gain support from gauchos and estancias to create an army that would challenge

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7192-404: The expulsion of the Jesuits and other religious orders from Venezuela. In 1936, Caldera founded the National Student Union (UNE), the seed of what eventually became the Venezuelan Christian Democratic movement. After graduating from university, Caldera founded National Action, a political movement formed to participate in municipal elections. Soon after, he founded the National Action Party and

7308-467: The foundation for the longest period of civil democratic rule in Venezuela (1958–1999). Unable to reach agreement over a consensus candidate, the three major parties that signed the Puntofijo Pact (AD, URD, and COPEI) competed in the 1958 presidential election with their own candidates and platforms. Rafael Caldera lost to Rómulo Betancourt (AD) and Wolfgang Larrazábal (URD), who came in first and second place respectively. Caldera also ran for Congress and

7424-428: The framework of rule in medieval and early modern Spain during the Reconquista from the Moors . Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro exhibit characteristics of the caudillo , being successful military leaders, having mutual reliance on the leader and their supporters, and rewarding them for their loyalty. During the colonial era , the Spanish crown asserted its power and established

7540-460: The idea of communalism was more in tune with the traditional values of native populations than the emphasis on private property that other caudillos embraced. Belzu was also known for his nationalization of the country's profitable mining industry – he enacted protectionist policies to reserve Bolivian resources for Bolivian use, provoking the ire of British, Peruvian, and Chilean shipping and mining interests. Many of Belzu's policies won him favor among

7656-423: The institutions of the colonial era as legacies to be rejected, but the Roman Catholic Church and traditional values remained strong in many regions, supported by elites seeking to maintain their power in the new order. Conservative caudillos , supported by the Church and elites, moved to the creation of strong, central governments. Although there was the hope of some Spanish American leaders of independence that

7772-433: The interests of regional elites. A local strongman who built a regional base could aspire to become a national caudillo , taking control of the state. In this situation, caudillos could bestow patronage on a large retinue of clients, who in turn gave him their loyalty. In general, caudillos ' power benefited elites. But these strongmen were also mediators between elites and the popular classes, recruiting them into

7888-414: The international oil trade. He raised taxes on oil production, nationalized the gas industry, and enacted stringent laws regulating the U.S. oil companies that operated in Venezuela. In 1971, Caldera raised the oil profit tax to 70 per cent. In addition, he passed the hydrocarbons reversion law which provided that all oil company assets would go to the State once the concessions had elapsed. This law paved

8004-585: The latter a controversial novel about Simón Bolívar . In 1946, Nobel Prize laureate Miguel Ángel Asturias published El Señor Presidente , based on the life of Manuel Estrada Cabrera (1898–1920), which was translated to English in 1975. In 1974, Augusto Roa Bastos published I, the Supreme based on Francia's life. In Mexico, two fictional caudillos are depicted by Mariano Azuela 's 1916 novel The Underdogs and Carlos Fuentes 's novel The Death of Artemio Cruz . In 1929, Mexican writer Martín Luis Guzmán published his novel La sombra del caudillo ,

8120-449: The leaders of the nation-states they had helped bring into being. In the wake of the violence and political disruption, new nations were faced with widespread property destruction, the disappearance of trade, and states that lacked political authority. The first few decades after independence saw the rise of strongmen with roots in the military. Spanish America had known no other type of regime than monarchy, and Mexico established one under

8236-402: The leadership of Argentina. After his rise to power using the rural workers, he changed his system in favor of using the military. He attempted to impose a ban on imported goods to help and win the support of the artisans in Argentina, but failed. He was forced to lift the ban on certain imports, like textiles, which opened a trade with Great Britain. Through his power over the imports and exports,

8352-408: The legislative sessions. Caldera played a prominent role in this assembly. He delivered celebrated speeches on the social rights of workers, the social function of private property, agrarian reform, religious freedom, religious education, and the need for direct, popular election of state governors. In the 1947 elections , at the age of 31, he ran for president for the first time and travelled around

8468-438: The long-downtrodden indigenous peoples of Bolivia, but came at the cost of enraging wealthy Creole Bolivians as well as foreign countries like Britain that sought to use resources from Bolivian mines. Belzu took steps to legitimize his leadership, and was at one point democratically elected. Despite his popularity in many sectors, Belzu had many powerful enemies and he survived 40 assassination attempts. His enemies wanted to destroy

8584-483: The lower orders with contempt. He gives examples of Juan Facundo Quiroga , Martín Güemes, and other Argentine caudillos , most importantly Juan Manuel de Rosas, who were popular and populist caudillos . Burns attributes the urban elites' bafflement and their contempt for followers of these folk caudillos for much of the negative role assigned to caudillos . National caudillos often sought to legitimize their rule by holding titles of authority such as "President of

8700-760: The members of the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the Inter-American Convention against Corruption. The Convention is often referred to as the Caldera Convention, after the President of Venezuela, who was one of the driving forces behind it". President Caldera also insisted on making corruption the central theme of the VII Ibero-American Summit of Heads State and Government , hosted by Venezuela in 1997. The renowned Venezuelan economist Moises Naím ,

8816-583: The merciless attempts at forever lowering the prices of our goods while increasing the price of commodities we have to import." Caldera's most important domestic priorities during his first administration were education, housing, and infrastructure. He dramatically increased the number of educational institutions by doubling the number of public secondary schools and tripling the number of state university colleges and institutes of technology. Universities built and inaugurated during his administration include Simón Bolívar University , Simón Rodríguez , Táchira , and

8932-520: The methods of the communal Indian society that existed previously in Paraguay. After independence the state gained control of the land which was once under control of the Church and the Spanish state. Francia created state ranches and rented out land for the use of citizens who were able to pay a fee. Francia's repressive measures included crushing the power of the elite American-born Spaniards and curbing

9048-465: The military, the police, and even the legislative branch of government, Rosas created a monopoly that would ensure his remaining in power for over two decades. By the 1850s, Rosas was under attack by the very people who had helped him gain power. He was driven out of power and eventually ended up in Great Britain, where he died in 1877. Uruguay attained independence from Brazil and Argentina and

9164-423: The need to recognize the root causes of the crisis and the growing weakening of the people's faith in democratic values and institutions. One month after the February 1992 coup, he delivered a memorable speech at Universidad Central de Venezuela condemning the country's history with military dictatorships and coups d'état. He urged students to reject violent paths and search for answers to the crisis without abandoning

9280-428: The new nation-states via written constitutions. Free trade as an economic policy created market-oriented economies. The model that these nation-states often adopted was federalism , keeping power in the component regions. Federalism, however, tended toward centrifugalism and fragmentation and was characterized by weak central governments. Conservative caudillos also emerged around 1830. New nation-states often rejected

9396-474: The party primary. However, the party's old guard felt Prieto was too left-wing, and intervened to deliver the nomination to Gonzalo Barrios . Prieto and a number of his supporters broke off to form the People's Electoral Movement . Ultimately, Caldera defeated Barrios with 29.1 percent of the vote, a margin of just 32,000 votes. Prieto finished fourth, but his 719,000 votes far exceeded Caldera's margin. Caldera

9512-400: The party was "dying an undignified death" as infighting among leaders could not agree on a path for the party. – 12 March 1974 – 2 February 1984 Rafael Caldera Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( Spanish pronunciation: [rafaˈel anˈtonjo kalˈdeɾa roˈðɾiɣes] listen ; 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009) was a Venezuelan politician and academician who

9628-406: The political contours of regions would reconstitute the former viceroyalties , but with local autonomy. The Roman Catholic Church as an institution remained strong and the militaries won victories against royalist forces. The state as an institution in most areas was weak. Conflicts over the form the new governments should take were rampant, and veterans of the wars of independence saw themselves as

9744-436: The political left for opposing slavery and distrust of the U.S. and the right, which admires his authoritarianism . Veterans of the wars of independence assumed the leadership of the newly created nation-states, each with a new constitution. Despite constitutions and ideological labels of liberals and conservatives, personalist and opportunistic leaders dominated the early nineteenth century. As with Mexico and Central America,

9860-530: The political turmoil and penury of the governments of the Bolivarian republics prevented foreign investors from risking their capital there. One caudillo who was progressive for his time was Bolivia ’s Manuel Isidoro Belzu , who served as the fourteenth president from 1848 until 1855. The former president, Jose Miguel de Velasco , executed a coup for the presidency in 1848, promising the position of Minister of War to Belzu. Belzu seized power for himself once

9976-406: The power base, but also restraining them from achieving power themselves. There were a few strongmen who either rose from a humble background to protect the interests of indigenous groups or other rural marginalized groups, or strongly identified with those groups; historian E. Bradford Burns referred to them as "folk caudillos ,". In his analysis, they contrasted with Europeanized elites who viewed

10092-479: The power of the Roman Catholic Church. Francia allowed for religious freedom and abolished the tithe. He actively encouraged miscegenation. He has been a controversial figure in Hispanic American history: many modern historians credit him with bringing stability to Paraguay, preserving independence, and "bequeathing to his successors an egalitarian, homogeneous nation". However, because of his crackdown on

10208-499: The presidency in 1861, but he was gunned down by one of his rivals by the time he tried to run for presidency again. He was unable to leave a legacy and his populist programs died with him. After Bolivia's independence, Bolivia lost half of its territory to neighboring countries including Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Brazil through the war and agreements reached under the threat of invasion. In contrast to most of Spanish America, post-independence Chile experienced political stability under

10324-551: The presidency in 1911. Pancho Villa also helped oust Díaz, supported Madero, and following his murder in 1913, became a general in the Constitutionalist Army commanded by civilian Venustiano Carranza . Emiliano Zapata , peasant leader from the state of Morelos, opposed to Díaz and every subsequent Mexican government until his murder in 1919 by Carranza's agents. Álvaro Obregón emerged as another brilliant general from northern Mexico, defeating Villa's Division of

10440-420: The principles and mechanisms of democracy. The 1961 Constitution did not allow former presidents to run again before ten years had elapsed after leaving office. In 1983, Caldera became eligible again and was chosen by his party COPEI to run against Jaime Lusinchi , the candidate of the opposition party AD , who won the presidential election. In 1993, Caldera ran for president as an independent candidate, with

10556-632: The ruling party (AD). Soon thereafter, he was elected President of the Christian Democratic Organization of America (ODCA) for the period 1964–1968, and as first President of the Christian Democratic World Union for the period 1967–1968. In December 1968 Caldera ran for president for the third time. This time, Caldera benefited from a split in AD. Senate president Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa won

10672-403: The second largest bank in Venezuela, Banco Latino , failed and was taken over by the government. As of October 1994, the government had seized more than ten failed banks. As René Salgado explains in his research on government and economics in Venezuela, "the government's bailout of the financial sector guaranteed approximately 6 billion dollars to depositors, which represented roughly 75 percent of

10788-550: The security of foreign investments, facilitate extraction of resources, and production of agricultural crops and animals were the necessary structures. Industrialization also took hold in a few countries (Mexico, Argentina, Colombia) to produce consumer goods locally. In general, foreign governments and entrepreneurs had no interest in directly administering countries of Hispanic America in a formal colonial arrangement so long as their interests could be nurtured by modernizing national governments, often seen as neocolonialism . There are

10904-399: The state-run projects that helped nationalist program but likewise improved the public sphere on which the country's poor were reliant. However, the despotism that is so rife among the caudillos also found a home with Belzu – from the early 1850s until his abdication of power in 1855, he is said to have ruled despotically, making himself very wealthy in the process. Belzu considered returning to

11020-634: The support of a new party, National Convergence , which allowed members and sympathizers of COPEI to support his candidacy. He also received the support from a coalition of 17 small parties dismissed by opponents as " chiripas " (small cockroaches). Caldera won the presidency with almost 400.000 votes over his closest opponent Claudio Fermín , the candidate of AD. As it had been the case in his first administration, Caldera had to govern with an opposition majority in Congress. Caldera's second administration inherited and faced three adversities of great magnitude:

11136-732: The way for the nationalization of the oil industry, which was overseen by finance minister Luis Enrique Oberto . In his official visit to the U.S. in 1970, Caldera obtained a commitment from the Nixon administration to increase the market share of Venezuelan petroleum exports to the United States. Speaking before a joint session of the U.S. Congress, Caldera won repeated applause from the Senators and Representatives as he bluntly urged Americans to change their approach toward Latin America: "The formula for achieving cordial relations," he said, "cannot be

11252-439: The wealthy elite and the subsequent weakening of their power, he was accused of anti-clericalism. Nevertheless, Paraguay prospered under Francia in terms of economics and trade through a trade route with Buenos Aires, which was opposed by the wealthy Argentinian elites. "Sometimes counted among the dictators of the era, contemporary history has viewed Francia as an honest, populist leader who promoted sovereign economic prosperity in

11368-500: The words of Professor Levine, "the most stable mass democracy in South America". For four decades, he explains, "Venezuelans built a political system marked by high participation, strong leadership, institutional continuity, and genuine pervasive competition. Power was transferred peacefully in six consecutive national elections." Caldera came in second place in the 1963 presidential election that Raúl Leoni won as candidate of

11484-496: The young twenty-year-old Caldera. Contreras appointed him deputy director of the newly created National Labor Office. From this position, Caldera played a major role in the drafting of Venezuela's first Labor Law, which remained current for more than fifty years until its reform in 1990. The international lawyer Wilfred Jenks , who drafted the Declaration of Philadelphia on labor rights and served two terms as Director-General of

11600-532: Was President during the second period of civilian democratic rule in a country beleaguered by a history of political violence and military caudillos . His leadership helped to establish Venezuela's reputation as one of the more stable democracies in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. He is also remembered as the President who pardoned Hugo Chávez in December 1994, enabling him to gain freedom from prison and later on to run for

11716-409: Was also the first Venezuelan political party to assume power peacefully on its first attempt. The only other COPEI member to become president of Venezuela was Luis Herrera Campins , from 1979 to 1983. However, Herrera Campins fell from grace due to a drop in oil revenue, leading to AD candidate Jaime Lusinchi winning the presidency in 1984. Governing by COPEI and AD would continue through the rest of

11832-648: Was appointed Solicitor General by Rómulo Betancourt , head of the Revolutionary Government Junta that ousted President Isaías Medina Angarita on 18 October 1945 . On 13 January 1946, Caldera co-founded COPEI , Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente (Independent Political Electoral Organization Committee), the Christian Democratic Party that grew to become one of the two largest mass political parties in Venezuela. COPEI's first statement of principles

11948-600: Was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies . In this capacity, he co-presided the Bicameral Commission in charge of drafting the new Constitution. The 1961 Constitution was Venezuela's most successful and long-lived Constitution. This country adopted twenty-five different constitutions between 1811 and 1961, and only three of them (1830, 1854, 1881) lasted more than ten years. After its long history under dictatorships and arbitrary rule, Venezuela became, in

12064-553: Was elected in January 1941, at the age of twenty-five, to the Chamber of Deputies for his native state of Yaracuy. As a congressman, he strongly opposed the bill that led to the 1941 boundary treaty with Colombia . He also had a prominent role in the debates on the partial reform of the 1936 Constitution and revisions to the Civil Code, and was a leading voice in the enactment of progressive labor laws. On 27 October 1945, Caldera

12180-520: Was elected representative to the National Constituent Assembly . After Colonel Marcos Pérez Jiménez , head of the Military Junta, ignored the electoral triumph of the URD party (Democratic Republican Union), and expelled Jóvito Villalba and other leaders of this party from the country, Caldera and other elected party members of COPEI refused to participate in the new Constituent Assembly. During

12296-517: Was in crisis. Even though Caldera was one of the main architects of the system, he was one of the first to realize its weakness. So much oil (by some estimates, in the decade after the 1973 oil price surge, Venezuela received 240 billion dollars, or five times the Marshall Plan) had led not just to dependence but widespread corruption and growing resentment from the popular sectors left off the gravy train". In these speeches, Caldera insisted on

12412-418: Was inspired by the social teaching of the papal encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (1931) and embraced democracy, pluralism and social reform. Four months later, on 13 April 1946, Caldera resigned from his position as Solicitor General in protest against the continuous violent attacks that members of his newly created party were suffering from government supporters. In 1946, he was elected as a representative to

12528-890: Was more local but still important, including Gerónimo Treviño and Francisco Narajo in Nuevo León, Servando Canales and Juan Cortina in Tamaulipas , Florencio Antillón in Guanajuato, Ignacio Pesqueira in Sonora , Luis Terrazas in Chihuahua , and Manuel Lozada in Tepic . Following the defeat of the French in 1867, the government of Benito Juárez and his successor following his death, Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada , faced opponents who objected to their increasingly Centralist administrations. Those opponents gravitated to supporting Díaz,

12644-417: Was once again imprisoned, but this time in solitary confinement, after Pérez Jiménez learned that Caldera, in all likelihood, would be the consensus candidate for all opposition parties in the presidential election scheduled for December, 1957. With Caldera imprisoned, Pérez Jiménez turned the election into an unconstitutional plebiscite ("Yes" or "No" referendum) to decide his permanence in power. Following

12760-668: Was presented in March 1992, but did not receive the necessary support from the major political parties in Congress. This project included provisions to restructure the Judiciary as well as mechanisms to strengthen citizen participation in democracy. These changes had been demanded by most sectors of Venezuela's society, in light of corruption in the administration of justice and insufficient means for citizens to directly participate in governmental decisions. The political events that later unfolded in 1999, and particularly President Chávez' call for

12876-478: Was ruled by Fructuoso Rivera . In Paraguay, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (r. 1814–1840) was Supreme Dictator of the Republic, maintaining the landlocked country's independence from Argentina and other foreign powers. Sealed off from outside trade, Paraguay developed economic self-sufficiency under Francia. He based society on communal properties, rather than centralized authoritarianism, attempting to revert to

12992-529: Was signed. This pact contained important political agreements, especially, the commitment of all major political parties to build, protect and strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law. According to political science scholar Daniel H. Levine, its aim was to "support democracy, band together to resist challenges to its legitimacy and survival; respect elections; and strive in general to institutionalize politics, channeling participation within democratic vehicles and arenas." The Puntofijo Pact served as

13108-408: Was sworn in on 11 March 1969. For the first time in Venezuela's 139-year history as an independent nation, there was a peaceful and democratic transfer of power from the ruling party to the opposition. It was also the first time in the country's history that a party won power without ever having resorted to violence. However, COPEI still had a minority in the legislature. The process of pacification,

13224-494: Was the 46th and 51st president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999, thus becoming the longest serving democratically elected politician to govern the country in the twentieth century. Widely acknowledged as one of the founders of Venezuela's democratic system, one of the main architects of the 1961 Constitution, and a pioneer of the Christian Democratic movement in Latin America, Caldera

13340-616: Was the tripartite agreement over labor benefits, social security, and pension funds, reached between labor unions, the private business sector, and the State, after ten years of stalled negotiations. The fight against corruption was a central priority in Caldera's second term. In March 1996, as the GlobalSecurity organization describes, "an epochal event occurred, hardly creating a ripple in the world press. In its third plenary session,

13456-680: Was “order and progress”, which was enforced by armed men controlled by the president, the Rurales . Díaz was averse to being dependent on the Mexican army, since as a general and leader of a coup d'état himself, he knew their potential for intervening in national politics. Díaz coopted or crushed regional opposition to his regime, creating a political machine to forward his vision of modern Mexico. Desirous of economic development that necessitated foreign investment, Díaz sought capital and expertise from European powers (Britain, France, and Germany) to offset

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