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Marcos Pérez Jiménez
President of Venezuela
In office 2 December 1952 – 23 January 1958 Provisional until 19 April 1953
Preceded by	Germán Suárez Flamerich
Succeeded by	Wolfgang Larrazábal
30th Commander-in-Chief of the Venezuelan Army
In office November 1948 – August 1954
Preceded by	Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
Succeeded by	Hugo Fuentes
Minister of Defense
In office 18 October 1948 – 1 January 1952
Preceded by	Carlos Delgado Chalbaud
Succeeded by	Jesús M. Castro León
Personal details
Born	Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (1914-04-25)25 April 1914 Táchira, Venezuela
Died	20 September 2001(2001-09-20) (aged 87) Alcobendas, Spain
Nationality	Venezuelan
Spouse(s)	Flor María Chalbaud
Children	5 daughters
Alma mater	Military academy of Venezuela
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Military officer
Awards	Order of Boyaca Ecuadorean Order of Merit Legion of Merit
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Venezuela
Branch/service	Venezuelan Army
Years of service	1931–1958
Rank	Divisional General
Battles/wars	none

Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military and general officer of the Venezuelan Army and the leader of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as unelected military strongman from 1948 to 1950 and as President of Venezuela from 1952 to 1958.

His ruling period is characterized by the rise of oil prices^[1][2] facilitating public works achievements, thanks to the Korean War.^[3] He followed previous programs to eradicate many of Venezuela's rapidly growing slums but mainly in Caracas that had started under Juan Vicente Gómez, Eleazar López Contreras, and Isaías Medina Angarita.^[4][5][6][7]

He presided over one of the most repressive governments in Latin America. His government's National Security (Seguridad Nacional, Secret Police) was extremely repressive against critics who tried to overthrow him by planting bombs and ruthlessly hunted down and imprisoned those who opposed his rule.

As a result of the debts contracted by the dictatorship,^[8] the discontent of the national private sector, the adverse position of the Catholic Church,^[9] the cruelty of the dictatorship,^[10] massive demonstrations against repression by the government, and the predicted economic crisis, Marcos Pérez Jiménez was deposed in a coup by disgruntled sectors within the Armed Forces of Venezuela on January 23, 1958.^[11][9]

The expansion of the Venezuelan economy was based on the indebtedness of the Venezuelan nation, one of the causes of the economic crisis in Venezuela in the 1960s ^[11] in which important projects such as the El Recreo Urban Center of Marcel Brauer on Casanova Avenue (Sabana Grande) were paralyzed. In the 1960s, the construction sector suffered a deep crisis as a result of the economic waste of the government. Sectors that defend militarism have promoted the management of Pérez Jiménez to delegitimize the civil power.

He went into exile in the Dominican Republic and the United States from where he was extradited from the city of Miami. Finally, he resided in Spain, under the protection of the Franco regime. A CIA report in 1961 stated that his government generated the economic crisis that Venezuela experienced in the 1960s.^[12]

Early life

Pérez Jiménez was born in Michelena, Táchira State. His father, Juan Pérez Bustamante, was a farmer; his mother, Adela Jiménez, a schoolteacher. Pérez Jiménez attended school in his hometown and in Colombia, and in 1934, he graduated from the Military Academy of Venezuela at the top of his class. He subsequently studied at Chorrillos Military School, in Peru.

First coup

In 1945, Pérez Jiménez participated in a coup that helped install the founder of the Democratic Action, Rómulo Betancourt, as President of the Revolutionary Government Junta. The government would later become known as El Trienio Adeco. After a constitutional change providing universal suffrage, elections were held in 1947, which resulted in the election of a party member, Romulo Gallegos.

Second coup

Fears of cuts in pay for soldiers and a lack of modernized army equipment led Pérez Jiménez and Lt. Colonel Carlos Delgado Chalbaud to stage another coup in 1948. Betancourt and Gallegos were exiled, political parties were suppressed, and the Communist Party was once again banished by the military junta, headed by Delgado Chalbaud, Luis Felipe Llovera Páez, and Pérez Jiménez.

After a clumsily arranged kidnapping that ended in the murder of Delgado Chalbaud, the military junta changed its name to a Government Junta, and it reorganized itself with Pérez Jiménez pulling the strings of the puppet president, Germán Suárez Flamerich.

Presidency

A house of Marcos Pérez Jiménez that featured fountains, a pool, an elevator, an observatory and tunnels.

The junta called an election for 1952 to elect a Constituent Assembly that would elect a president and draft a new constitution. When early results showed that the opposition was well on its way to victory, the junta halted the count. On 2 December 1952, it released "final" results that showed the pro-junta "Independent Electoral Front" (FEI) winning a majority of assembly seats. On the same day, the junta dissolved itself and turned over power to the military, who then made Pérez provisional president. The Constitutional Assembly, comprising only FEI delegates after an opposition boycott, formally elected him president on 19 April 1953. Soon afterward, it enacted a constitution that gave the president virtually unlimited powers to take measures he deemed necessary to protect national security, peace and order.^[13] For all intents and purposes, it transformed Pérez Jiménez' presidency into a legal dictatorship.

Pérez Jiménez (widely known as "P.J.") changed the name of the country, which had been "United States of Venezuela" since 1864, to the "Republic of Venezuela." That name remained until 1999, when it was changed to the [Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by a constitutional referendum. (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela.)

During his government, Pérez Jiménez undertook many infrastructure projects, including construction of roads, bridges, government buildings, large public housing complexes and the symbolic Humboldt Hotel & Tramway overlooking Caracas. Most of these projects had already been initiated by the governments of López Contreras, Medina Angarita and Trienio Adeco.^[11][14] The economy of Venezuela developed rapidly during his term, but Perez Jimenez generated a huge debt that had to be paid by Rómulo Betancourt. The price for his "development" was thus very high.

Intolerant of criticism, Pérez and his government ruthlessly pursued and suppressed the opposition. Opponents of his regime were painted as communists^[15] and often treated brutally.^[16] On 12 November 1954, Pérez was awarded the Legion of Merit by the government of the United States.^[17][18] Foreign capital and immigration were also highly promoted during his presidency, especially from Europe, such as from Spain, Italy and Portugal. However, During the governments of Eleazar Lopez Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita, large waves of immigrants had already been experienced.^[19] In 1938, several ships of Jewish immigrants left Hamburg (Germany). Venezuela was the only country that received them despite the threats of Hitler. Venezuelan laws prohibited López Contreras from accepting the entry of Jews, but he made the sacrifice of receiving the refugees.

According to some political scientists, the government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez could have been personalist.^[11] In the last years of his government, Marcos Pérez Jiménez had stopped listening to his own ministers, according to their statements^[20] Public debt accumulated^[21] and Pérez Jiménez changed the subject. National businessmen were dissatisfied with their government, as a result of corruption, the bad conditions of doing business, the concessions of the transnationals, etc. It is still discussed whether the Pérez Jiménez government was nationalist or not.^[22] According to IESA researchers, the government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez was not characterized by being a nationalist and liberal government.^[22] Democratic sectors have pointed out that it was an authoritarian government, subservient to transnational corporations, undemocratic, and not very liberal.^[11] Pérez Jiménez defended himself in his book Frente a la Infamia, but avoids addressing the issue of public debt.^[23] The most balanced sectors of national life have suggested that the government of Pérez Jiménez is the antecedent of the statism of democratic governments, although some media have created another opinion matrix. It is prudent to point out that statism had begun before Pérez Jiménez became the line of government from López Contreras. The 1947 constitution reaffirmed it.^[24] It should be noted that state capitalism can be successful in some cases. The issue has been addressed from different perspectives.

Pérez Jiménez was up for reelection in 1957. The opposition had been so cowed that Pérez Jiménez could not possibly have been defeated. However, he dispensed with even those formalities. Instead, he held a plebiscite in which voters could only choose between voting "yes" or "no" to another term for the president. Predictably, Pérez Jiménez won by a large margin, but by all accounts, the count was blatantly rigged.

Economy

State interventionism

The government had strong elements of Keynesianism. Pérez Jiménez's administration used state interventionism in areas of the economy that had been carried out by private companies. By September 1952, the CVF had wholly or partly electric power plants, a textile industry, a vegetable oil plant, a sugar plantation and refinery, farms, a diamond mine, silos, beef cattle and milk, milk pasteurization plants and canned fish companies. The national private sector had few incentives to grow.^[25]

Although some sectors have promoted it as a government of liberal capitalism, the state was the great national shareholder of big hotel chains like Sheraton. The economic policies of Pérez Jímenez can be considered a precedent of those applied by subsequent democratic governments.^[26] Most of the investments came from the US, and its transnationals were the great beneficiaries of the economic measures adopted during their government.^[25] National private entrepreneurs criticized Pérez Jiménez's government for its excessive intervention in the economy and for the privileges that transnationals had.^[11] The CIA recognizes in its reports that the government of Pérez Jiménez caused the subsequent economic crisis of the 1960s.^[27]

The economic indicators of Venezuela during the government showed growth in some sectors of the economy such as construction, as well as low inflation and high levels of employment, but the balance of payments and government finances showed a worrying fiscal disorder.^[11] Venezuela's debt grew more than 25 times and went from 175 million to more than 4 thousand 500 million dollars in just 5 years (approximately 40 billion dollars in 2018). The malaise for 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 cancelation of debts.^[28] As of January 14, 1958, the Venezuelan business community decided to divorce itself completely from the regime, nine days before its final collapse.^[11]

Venezuelan debt

The expansion of the Venezuelan economy was based on the indebtedness of the Venezuelan nation, which was one of the causes of the economic crisis in the 1960s^[11] in which important projects such as the Urban Center El Recreo de Marcel Brauer on Avenida Casanova (Sabana Grande) were paralyzed.^[29] Under the doctrine of the "New National Ideal," the modernization project of Venezuela was continued, based on what had been planned by Juan Vicente Gómez (the modern state father in a Weberian sense in Venezuela), Eleazar López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita as going from having rural populations to being one of the references of modernism in Latin America.^[11]

The 1950s have been considered an economic bubble that was based on oil production and public works construction.^[21][30][14] Oil production went from 1.80 million barrels per day (quoted at 2.14 dollars) to 2.77 million barrels per day (quoted at 2.65 dollars), according to data from the Ministry of Energy and Mines. According to the Statistics Division of the United Nations in its Statistical Yearbook of 1964, the growth of the Venezuelan economy from 1952 to 1958 was the highest in the Western Hemisphere, more than the United States and the United Kingdom. It should be noted that most economies that grow at very high rates without having experienced a war may be experiencing some kind of economic bubble. The ambitious program of public works and investments in basic industries had a cost that exceeded fiscal availability. Public credit was not used formally. and a high floating debt was incurred, derived more than anything from back payments from public works contractors and in strong commitments made by autonomous institutes and companies of the state through the issuance of titles and promissory notes.^[21] Venezuela did not have the ideal rate of economic growth.

Venezuela's growth was not sustainable. The debt of private construction companies had grown disproportionately and that was one of the reasons that led to the departure from power. The finances of many construction companies felt the imminence of a bankruptcy. The government had to go to the autumn of new oil concessions in 1956 and 1957 to solve the financial difficulties and the huge debt that had been incurred. The government received 2.188 billion bolivars as tax revenue and that allowed it to mitigate the effects of Venezuela's deteriorating fiscal situation. Fred Levy noted that the balance of payments and government finances were evidence of the fiscal disorder of the dictatorship.^[30]

Venezuelan bolivar

Some Venezuelan journalists have pointed out that the Venezuelan bolivar came to be worth more than the US dollar, but that has been refuted by economists, academics, and researchers. According to some notes published in the news website Caraota Digital, the Venezuelan bolivar became the first reserve currency in the world and surpassed the US dollar.^[31] According to data from Central Bank of Venezuela,^[32] and the National Academy of Economic Sciences^[33][34] Venezuela, between 1953 and 1957, had a fixed official exchange of 3.35 bolivares per US dollar. The annual reports of the Bank for International Settlements also confirm that the Venezuelan currency never came to be worth more than the US dollar.^[35] That suggests that it has been an urban legend that the bolivar came to surpass the US dollar.^[36] What is certain is that the Venezuelan currency had greater stability. It should be noted that the controls on the Venezuelan currency already existed and so the exchange rate was set by the Central Bank of Venezuela. The exchange rate was not floating and fixed by the markets.^[34] The economist Pedro Palma calls this scheme the system of fixed and differentiable exchange rates (1941-1960).

Ciudad Vacacional Los Caracas

The Ciudad Vacacional Los Caracas was originally an agricultural community for the leprosy patients that had to be isolated, as part of the Sanitary Plans of the Ministry of Health. Marcos Pérez Jiménez changed his use and turned the Colonia Agrícola-Leprosario into a holiday town, harming the sick.^[37] Actually, it was a project of the government of Isaías Medina Angarita, but the propaganda apparatus of the government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez has sold it as his own. The change of destiny of the agricultural community was one of the greater gestures of cruelty of Jiménez.

Originally, the conception of the Agricultural-Leprosarium Colony of Los Caracas, pursued from the beginning the integration of its inhabitants with the natural environment, in a symbiosis of urban life inserted in the middle of a nature with minimal intervention of man. Both in its origin as a care center for Hansen's disease or leprosy and in its transformation into a holiday resort, the semi-utopian ambition of its planners is present, which coincided with the old western 19th-century ambition to harmonize city and nature. The government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez gave priority to recreation, beautification of cities and tourism. Health was not a priority for Pérez Jiménez.^[37]

Also, the government was characterized by excessive repression of dissent. The historian Manuel Vicente Magallanes, a prisoner of the dictatorship, told that in the National Security premises of the whole republic, political prisoners were subjected to the following forms of torture: ice chamber, ring, blows with steel balls, electric headbands, planks, tortoles and other refined forms of physical abuse. At the time, Plaza Colón of Los Caobos neighborhood was the epicenter of the student protests. In the celebration of the day of the race in 1951, several Venezuelans who fought for freedom were captured: José Amin, Miguel Astor Martínez, Antonio Avila Barrios, Francisco Barrios, Federico was, Gerardo was, Luis José was, Dario Hernández, Manuel Vicente Magallanes, Eloy Martínez Méndez, Meza Espinosa Salon and Juan Regalado. The group was known as "The Twelve Apostles" for having been 12 people arrested in the demonstrations on October 12. The twelve apostles were forced to stand together for three days, deprived of doing the most elementary needs. Then, each one was tortured in a personalized way.^[10]

Infrastructure projects

The media and the "perezjimenista" propaganda apparatus claimed that Pérez Jiménez carried out the great works in infrastructure that exist today in Venezuela,^[38] but it has not been supported by the great academies, chambers of commerce, universities and national associations.^[11][39] It has been suggested that the merit that Pérez Jiménez has received should be shared between the previous and subsequent governments since most of the public works he executed had not been planned by him. Also, Pérez Jiménez did not initiate the construction of those works, and the distribution of merit according to the contribution of each government was unfair.^[39]

Jiménez gave continuity to the Venezuelan modernization project, previously planned by Eleazar López Contreras, Isaías Medina Angarita and the Triennium. As Juan Martín Frechilla points out, the Rotival Plan had been planned before Pérez Jiménez and was executed in the governments of López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita. The construction of the Simón Bolívar Center Towers began in the 1940s, but they were completed by Pérez Jiménez. It is possible to emphasize that some works initiated by him were culminated by Rómulo Betancourt, like the cable car of Mérida.^[39]

Some of these public projects that were built during his presidency included the following:

• National Heroes Avenue


• Hotel Humboldt


• Neighborhood 2 de Diciembre, Ciudad Tablitas, Artigas, Lomas de Urdaneta, Propatria, etc.

Projects that were culminated by the democratic governments after his military dictatorship, among others, were:

• Teleférico de Mérida. Culminated by Rómulo Betancourt, in spite of the economic crisis that generated the debt of Pérez Jiménez.


• The Rinconada Racetrack.

Some of the projects that were planned and started by Eleazar López Contreras, Isaías Medina Angarita and the Adeco Triennium but continued during the Jiménez presidency were:

• Caracas - La Guaira Highway.


• Simón Bolívar Center and Torres del Silencio


• Regional Highway of the Center.


• Valle-Coche highway.


• Urdaneta Avenue.


• Francisco de Miranda Avenue.


• Libertador Avenue.


• Francisco Fajardo Highway


• Caracas Cable Car


• Military Club of Caracas


• The University City of Caracas (executed between 1944 and 1970).

Projects of previous governments that Pérez Jiménez changed its use:

• The Vacational City "Los Caracas", formerly a community for leprosy patients. Pérez Jiménez damaged them when he turned it into a vacation town.

Cabinet (1952–1958)

Removal from power

The first public demonstration against the Pérez Jiménez regime occurred on March 27, 1957. Aaron Copland had come to Caracas to conduct the first Venezuelan performance of his Lincoln Portrait. A New York Times reviewer said it had a "magical effect" on the audience. As Copland recalled, "To everyone's surprise, the reigning dictator, who had rarely dared to be seen in public, arrived at the last possible moment." On that evening actress Juana Sujo performed the spoken-word parts of the piece. When she spoke the final words, "that government of the people, by the people, for the people (del pueblo, por el pueblo y para el pueblo) shall not perish from the earth," the audience rose and began cheering and shouting so loudly that Copland could not hear the remainder of the music. He continued, "It was not long after that the dictator was deposed and fled from the country. I was later told by an American foreign service officer that the Lincoln Portrait was credited with having inspired the first public demonstration against him. That, in effect, it had started a revolution."^[41][42]

Statue of Marcos Pérez Jiménez in Michelena, Táchira

In January 1958 there was a general uprising, leading to the 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état that deposed Pérez; with rioting in the streets, he left the country, paving the way for the establishment of the Punto Fijo Pact.

Post-presidency

Pèrez fled to the United States, where he lived until 1963, when he was extradited to Venezuela on charges of embezzling $200 million during his presidential tenure. The 1959–63 extradition of Perez, related to Financiadora Administradora Inmobiliaria, S.A., one of the largest development companies in South America, and other business connections, is considered by academicians to be a classic study in the precedent for enforcement of administrative honesty in Latin American countries.^[43]

Upon arrival in Venezuela he was imprisoned until his trial, which did not take place for another five years. Convicted of the charges, his sentence was commuted as he had already spent more time in jail while he awaited trial. He was then exiled to Spain. In 1968, he was elected to the Senate of Venezuela for the Nationalist Civic Crusade, but his election was contested, and he was kept from taking office. A quick law was passed whereby former prisoners were excluded from participating in the governmental process.

He died in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain, at the age of 87 on 20 September 2001.

Legacy and controversy

The admiration of Hugo Chávez

On April 25, 2010, former President Hugo Chávez commented on his program Aló Presidente: "I think that General Pérez Jiménez was the best president that Venezuela had in a long time. (...) It was better than Rómulo Betancourt, it was better I'm not going to name them (...) They hated him because he was a soldier. " He also added: "Look, if it had not been for General Pérez Jiménez, do you think we would have Fuerte Tiuna, the Academy, EFOFAC, the Military Circle, Paseo Los Próceres, Caracas-La Guaira highway, the superblocks of 23 de Enero, the highway of the Center, the Cableway of Caracas, Guri? ", asked.^[44]

New National Ideal

The period of Pérez Jiménez in power is remembered historically as a government of nationalist roots. His government was based on an ideological pragmatism characterized by the Doctrine of National Well, that the regime expressed in the New National Ideal would be the philosophical beacon to guide the actions of the government.

His political legacy known perezjimenismo was upheld by the Cruzada Cívica Nacionalista (CCN; Nationalist Civic Crusade) party, which held seats in Congress from 1968 to 1978. In recent years there has been a revival of perezjimenismo and the New National Ideal, with numerous groups revising and upholding the legacy of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.^[45][46]

Time magazine

In 1955, Time Magazine had on its cover Marcos Pérez Jiménez and the balance on its management was regular. Time Magazine talked about the economic boom that Venezuela experienced as a result of its oil production and the growth of the construction sector, but also mentioned the growing debt of the South American country and the social problems it faced.^[47] According to Time Magazine, government obligations in foreign currency were not canceled when due. Venezuela did not pay its commitments on time. Time Magazine denounced that the public debt in the dependencies of the Government continued its ascending course, without it was seen an effort to control it. Investors could not calculate the amount of that public debt.

In this period the construction of the main communication routes in the country was advanced, which united both the west, center and east of the country, as well as industrial conglomerates and great monuments. It should be noted that most of the works were already planned from the government of Eleazar López Contreras, Isaías Medina Angarita and Trienio Adeco, so the merit must be shared among several governments.^[11] The democratic governments finished paying the debts contracted, although the sectors that defend the militarism have refused to recognize it.

Personal life

Pérez had four daughters with his wife, Flor Chalbaud, and one daughter.

• 
  

  

  
  

  
  

  Flor María Chalbaud Cardona
  

  
  

  
  

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marcos Pérez Jiménez.

• History of Venezuela


• Politics of Venezuela


• Presidents of Venezuela


• List of Venezuelans

References

External links

• 
  (in Spanish) Marcos Pérez Jiménez – Official biography.


• 
  (in Spanish) Marcos Pérez Jiménez