Presidency of Raúl Leoni

Raúl Leoni and Rómulo Betancourt. 1964.

Raúl Leoni served as President of Venezuela from March 13, 1964, to March 11, 1969.

Background

In the elections of 1963 the Democratic Action (AD) candidate Raúl Leoni, a long-time ally of Rómulo Betancourt (President from 1959 to 1964) from the times of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, won handily. Rafael Caldera of COPEI came second. The Wolfgang Larrazábal political phenomenon was eclipsed and Jóvito Villalba on his own came just behind Caldera. AD was still the pardo party by excellence, but Caracas was definitely lost.

Cabinet

Ministries [1]
OFFICENAMETERM
PresidentRaúl Leoni1964–1969
Home AffairsGonzalo Barrios1964–1966
Reinaldo Leandro Mora1966–1969
Outer RelationsIgnacio Iribarren Borges1964–1969
FinanceAndrés Germán Otero1964–1965
Eddy Morales Crespo1965–1967
Benito Raúl Losada1967–1968
Francisco Mendoza1968–1969
DefenseRamón Florencio Gómez1964–1969
DevelopmentManuel Egaña1964
Luis Hernández Solís1964–1968
Aura Celina Casanova1968–1969
Public WorksLeopoldo Sucre Figarella1964–1969
EducationJosé Manuel Siso Martínez1964–1969
LaborEloy Lares Martínez1964
Hens Silva Torres1964–1967
Simón Antoni Paván1967–1968
Raúl Valera1968–1969
CommunicationsLorenzo Azpúrua Marturet1964
J. J. González Gorrondona1964–1966
Héctor Santaella1966–1967
Juan Manuel Domínguez Chacín1967–1968
Lorenzo Azpúrua Marturet1968–1969
AgricultureAlejandro Osorio1964
Juan José Palacios1964–1965
Pedro Segnini La Cruz1965–1966
Alejandro Osorio1966–1969
Health and Social AssistanceAlfredo Arreaza Guzmán1964
Domingo Guzmán Lander1964–1967
Alfonso Araujo Belloso1967–1968
Armando Soto Rivera1968–1969
JusticeMiguel Ángel Burelli Rivas1964
Ramón Escovar Salom1964–1966
José S. Núñez Aristimuño1966–1969
Mines and HydrocarbonsManuel Pérez Guerrero1964–1967
José Antonio Mayobre1967–1969
Secretary of PresidencyManuel Mantilla1964–1969

Presidency

Judicial policy

The Law on Commutation of Sentences by Pardon or Banishment from National Territory (Ley de conmutación de penas por indulto o extrañamiento del territorio nacional) was enacted in Venezuela, decreed on 15 December 1964 by President Raúl Leoni and published in the Official Gazette No. 27,619.[2][3]

On 7 August 1968, the government ordered the release of 67 political prisoners and the exile of Simón Sáez Mérida.[4]

Economy

The five bolívar banknote entered circulation in 1968 as part of Venezuela's monetary system.

The administration implemented significant fiscal reforms, including a reduction in public spending coupled with an increase in the nation's international reserves.[5] In 1967, his government enacted a comprehensive reform through a new Income Tax Law.[6]

Energy

During this period, Venezuela broke its annual oil export record, reaching an average of 3.6 million barrels per day by 1968.[5]

Education

During Raúl Leoni's presidency, two police raids were conducted at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV): the first on 15 May 1964 and the second on 14 December 1966.[4][7]

Agriculture

During Leoni's presidency, rice production increased by 107%, while corn production rose by 39.5%. By the end of his term, nearly 85% of the nation's food consumption was domestically sourced.[5]

Infrastructure

Raúl Leoni's presidency saw the construction of the Guri Dam, a power station with a combined installed capacity of 1750 megawatts (MW)[8] that created a reservoir which is the largest fresh water body of water in Venezuela and one of the largest man-made blackwater lakes ever created.[9]

Environment

In 1967, the Caño Mánamo (a distributary of the Orinoco River) was closed as part of an infrastructure project by the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana (CVG). According to Monsonyi and Jackson (1990), this led to the "complete ecological destruction of the western Delta: water stagnation and salinization, the decline of local flora and fauna, the disintegration of numerous agricultural communities (both Creole and Indigenous)", and the "death by hunger, thirst, and disease of thousands (possibly around 3,000) Warao Indigenous people".[10]

Human Rights

During the counterinsurgency campaign against guerrilla movements, numerous arrests were made of insurgents, civilians, and politicians accused of collaboration. Reports emerged of procedural delays and modifications to the Penal Code to increase penalties for sedition-related crimes.[4] Several media outlets faced censorship, including the newspapers El Clarín and La Extra, the magazine Venezuela Gráfica, and outlets linked to the Cadena Capriles.[4][11][12]

Forced disappearances

According to Revista SIC, Venezuela experienced "the highest number of forced disappearances by police or military forces in the continent during the 1960s."[13]

Under Raúl Leoni's presidency, the parliamentary group Vanguardia Popular Nacionalista (VPN), including deputies José Vicente Rangel, Luis Miquilena and José Herrera Oropeza, denounced extrajudicial executions and clandestine detention centers where detainees were allegedly tortured, killed, and their remains concealed.[4][14]

Alberto Lovera, general secretary of the Communist Party, was murdered in 1965

A prominent case was that of Alberto Lovera, general secretary of the Communist Party (PCV), who was abducted in public in 1965 and his weighted body dumped at sea, though it later washed ashore near Lechería.[4] Following these revelations, Congress formed an investigative commission, and the Attorney General launched an inquiry.[4] The congressional investigations also examined the disappearances of sociologist Víctor Soto Rojas (allegedly thrown from a helicopter in El Bachiller, Miranda state) and Humberto Barrios.[4]

On 29 August 1965, the General Amnesty Council, comprising trade unions and professional associations, met at Caracas' Casa del Periodista and published a report condemning state-sponsored human rights violations, including documented disappearances.[15]

Foreign policy

Leoni maintained the foreign policy framework established by Rómulo Betancourt, known as the Betancourt Doctrine. In 1966, Venezuela joined the Latin American Free Trade Association (ALALC)[16] and later that year, Leoni signed the Cartagena Agreement in Bogotá (a precursor to the Andean Community), a trade bloc comprising Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.[17]

International trips

The following article provides a summary of the official foreign visits made by Leoni as President of Venezuela:

1966

Date Place Main purpose
August Bogotá
( Colombia)		 Official visit together with the president of Chile Eduardo Frei. Includes a banquet at the Palace of San Carlos.[18][19]

1967

Date Place Main purpose
11 April ( Chile) [20]
12 April Punta del Este
( Uruguay)		 Conference of Presidents of the American states. Leoni met with the president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, with whom he discussed issues such as the sulfur content of Venezuelan oil and discrimination in U.S. import programs.[21]
20 September Bridge over the Arauca River
(Border Colombia- Venezuela)		 Inauguration of the bridge and meeting with the Colombian president Carlos Lleras. Reaffirmation of the principles of continental solidarity in defense of democracy and against the activities of subversive groups.[22]

Opposition

Guerrillas

Leoni's government was unexceptional, but it was Leoni who had to liquidate the remnants of the communist insurrection, for which he put the army in charge of the country with carte blanche to be as ruthless as it had to. But in fact it was the communist guerrilleros themselves who brought about their own liquidation. They had no rural support whatsoever. Unlike guerrillas all over the world, they did not control villages and lived from hand to mouth.[23] They knew they were no match for the army and avoided confrontations. Castro had been hoping that Venezuela would be the second act of the Latin American revolution, and he tried to supply the Venezuelan guerrillas. This was in keeping with the theory of what could be called the "permanent agrarian revolution", which the French intellectual Régis Debray had expressed in the widely circulated book Revolution Inside the Revolution and Ernesto "Che" Guevara had been trying to carry out first in Africa and later, fatally for him, in Bolivia. Castro sent a trusted officer, Manuel Ochoa, to assess the Venezuelan guerrillas, and the report that he brought was negative, which effectively ended Cuba's intervention in Venezuelan affairs.[24] By then the Venezuelan leftists had given up on violence and were seeking legalization, but Leoni did not offer it. Ochoa was later tried and executed by Castro on an unlikely charge of drug-smuggling.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Venezuela (1965). Oficina de Información, Prensa y Publicaciones. "El Presidente y su Gabinete."
  2. ↑ "1964 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela" [1964 - Chronology of Venezuelan history] (in Spanish). Fundación Empresas Polar.
  3. ↑ "Gaceta Oficial de la República de Venezuela Número 27.619" [Official Gazette of the Republic of Venezuela Number 27,619] (PDF) (in Spanish). Gaceta Oficial de Venezuela.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Montes de Oca, Rodolfo (2022). Sospechosos habituales. Diez aproximaciones a los antecedentes históricos del movimiento por los derechos humanos en Venezuela (1936-1999) [Usual suspects. Ten approaches to the historical background of the human rights movement in Venezuela (1936-1999)] (PDF) (in Spanish). Caracas: Edición del Programa Venezolano de Educación-Acción en Derechos Humanos (PROVEA).
  5. 1 2 3 Rojas, Indira (2018-10-07). "Gracias, Dr. Leoni" [Thank you, Dr. Leoni]. Prodavinci (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-08-10.
  6. ↑ "1967 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela" [1967 - Chronology of Venezuelan history]. Fundación Empresas Polar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-08-11.
  7. ↑ Pérez, Amado Moreno. "Sesenta años del Decreto Ley de Universidades (1958). Autonomía universitaria plena: origen, desarrollo, transformación y transfiguración (1958-2018)" [Sixty years since the Decree-Law on Universities (1958). Full university autonomy: origin, development, transformation and transfiguration (1958-2018)]. Educere (in Spanish). 23 (75). Universidad de Los Andes: 337–366.
  8. ↑ "Guri Dam". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2011. Archived from the original on 28 August 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  9. ↑ Archiv Für Hydrobiologie. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (Nägele u. Obermiller). 1994.
  10. ↑ Esteban E. Mosonyi y Gisela Jackson (1990). "Violencia antiindígena en la Venezuela contemporánea" [Anti-Indigenous violence in contemporary Venezuela] (PDF) (in Spanish). Nueva Sociedad.
  11. ↑ Díaz Rangel, Eleazar (2007). "Rescate, defensa y deterioro de la democracia" [Rescue, defense and deterioration of democracy]. La prensa venezolana en el siglo XX [The Venezuelan press in the 20th century] (in Spanish). Ediciones B Venezuela. pp. 120–149. ISBN 978-980-6993-11-2. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  12. ↑ "1965 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela" [1965 - Chronology of Venezuelan history]. bibliofep.fundacionempresaspolar.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-06-22.
  13. ↑ Alvarado Betancourt, Marino (2015-05-04). "La desaparición forzada en Venezuela" [Forced disappearance in Venezuela]. Revista SIC (in Spanish).
  14. ↑ Grand Henríquez, María Emma (2016). "Noel, desaparición forzada" [Noel, forced disappearance]. Universidad Nacional de la Plata (in Spanish): 1–65. doi:10.35537/10915/56463. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  15. ↑ Fundación Polar. "1965 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela" [1965 - Chronology of Venezuelan history]. Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  16. ↑ "1966 - Cronología de historia de Venezuela" [1966 - Chronology of Venezuelan history]. Fundación Empresas Polar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-08-10.
  17. ↑ Prieto, Carolina. "Firma del Acuerdo de Cartagena - 26 de mayo" [Signing of the Cartagena Agreement - 26 May]. Parlamento Andino (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2022-08-10.
  18. ↑ Señal Memoria. "Speeches of the President of the Senate Eduardo Abuchaibe, President of Chile Eduardo Frei Montalva, President of Venezuela Raúl Leoni at the National Capitol 16 August 1966 Audio 1 speeches at the banquet at the Palace of San Carlos 15 August 1966 Audio 2". Retrieved 11 November 2024.
  19. ↑ "Visit of Presidents Eduardo Frei (Chile) and Raúl Leoni (Venezuela) August 1966". Sellos del Mundo. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  20. ↑ "Conference of Presidents of America, in Punta del Este, Uruguay. Visit to Chile of the President of Venezuela, Mr. Leoni". National Congress of Chile Library. 11 April 1967. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  21. ↑ Fundación Empresas Polar. "1967 - Chronology of Venezuelan history". Dictionary of Venezuelan History. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  22. ↑ Fundación Empresas Polar. "1967 - Chronology of Venezuelan history". Dictionary of Venezuelan History. Retrieved 2024-11-11.
  23. ↑ Zago, Angela, Aqui no ha pasado nada, 1972
  24. ↑ Szulc, Tad, Castro: a Critical Portrait, 1986
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