Background
Marcos Perez Jimenez was from the Venezuelan state of Tachira, born in the town of Michelena on April 25, 1914. His father, Juan Perez Bustamante, was a farmer and his mother, Adela Jimenez, a schoolteacher.
Marcos Perez Jimenez was from the Venezuelan state of Tachira, born in the town of Michelena on April 25, 1914. His father, Juan Perez Bustamante, was a farmer and his mother, Adela Jimenez, a schoolteacher.
After being educated in his home town and Colombia, Perez Jimenez entered the Military Academy of Venezuela. An outstanding student, he graduated at the top of his class in 1934 and then studied at military colleges in Peru.
Perez Jimenez rose to national prominence on October 18, 1945, when he participated, with other junior officers and civilian politicians, in the overthrow of the government of General Isaias Medina Angarita. Perez Jimenez had helped organize a secret military lodge, the Patriotic Military Union, whose members believed that the civilian and military leaders of Venezuela were incompetent and dishonest. The young officers were joined in their conspiracy by the Democratic Action (Acción Democrática) Party. These idealistic young Venezuelans, led by Romulo Betancourt, wanted a democratic and socially progressive Venezuela. In the new government, which was first headed by Betancourt and then by Romulo Gallegos, Perez Jimenez served as chief of staff of the armed forces. But military officers chafed under civilian rule, concluding that elected politicians could never give Venezuela the nationalism, patriotism, and progress it needed. Led by Lt. Col. Carlos Delgado Chalbaud and Perez Jimenez, the military overthrew the democratically elected Gallegos government on November 24, 1948. Delgado Chalbaud assumed control of Venezuela, with Perez Jimenez acting as second-in-command. But in 1950 Delgado Chalbaud was assassinated. While it has never been determined who ordered the assassination, Perez Jimenez was the most obvious beneficiary of his superior's death. Perez Jimenez initially ruled through a figurehead. After staging a fraudulent election, he declared himself president in December 1952.
Perez Jimenez was a vigorous and energetic dictator. He relied on his skills as an organizer and planner to fulfill his goals.
Venezuelans eventually came to abhor the dictatorship. Protests mounted over the political repression and wasteful spending on the military. Many suspected that Perez Jimenez and his henchmen had stolen public funds. After a series of mass uprisings, Perez Jimenez fled in late January 1958, first to the Dominican Republic and later to Miami, Florida.
In December 1958 Venezuelans elected Romulo Betancourt, who had returned from exile, as president. Since then Venezuela has maintained a political democracy. In 1959 the Betancourt government asked the U. S. to extradite Perez Jimenez on the grounds that he was responsible for political crimes, murder, and embezzlement. After lengthy court hearings, the U. S. agreed in 1963 to deport the former dictator if the charges were limited to financial misconduct. Venezuela then initiated legal proceedings against Perez Jimenez, which lasted five years. In August 1968 Venezuelan judges ruled that Perez Jimenez had personally enriched himself while in office and gave him a four-year prison sentence. Since he had been in jail during his trial for more than four years, the court permitted Perez Jimenez to leave immediately for exile in Spain.
After 1968 Perez Jimenez attempted to influence Venezuelan political life. Politicians loyal to him attracted a small amount of electoral support. In 1972 he briefly returned to Venezuela and registered to run for president. The Venezuelan legislature responded by enacting a constitutional amendment barring ex-presidents convicted of crimes from serving again. Officials also suggested that Perez Jimenez might be tried for other crimes if he returned to Venezuela. In effect, Perez Jimenez was condemned to perpetual exile. He returned to Spain and was politically inactive thereafter. In light of Venezuela's widespread poverty, unemployment, and corruption, some citizens preferred the efficiency of dictatorial rule and credited the Perez Jimenez government for controlling street crime and using the country's oil wealth to build skyscrapers, bridges, and South America's finest highway system.
Perez is mostly known for his New National Ideal, consisted of lavish public works projects for Caracas, the capital city. The construction of new hotels, office buildings, apartments, and super-highways transformed Caracas into a glittering, modern city. In addition to public construction, Perez Jimenez concentrated his energies and the nation's money on the armed forces, the mainstay of his regime. Soldiers lived like aristocrats with impressive barracks and social clubs and the latest in military hardware.
The United States, under President Dwight Eisenhower, thankedhim by awarding him a Legion of Merit medal, the nation's highest award for foreign personages.
Perez Jimenez believed that the military must play a leading role in the lives of Latin American nations and promote technological progress. His motto was the "New National Ideal, " a philosophy that put a higher premium on national unity and material and technological progress than on political freedom and intellectual and moral improvement. He believed that the armed forces-disciplined, trained, and ostensibly non-partisan-could best carry out this mission.
Along with revivifying Caracas and bestowing favors on the military, Perez Jimenez brutally suppressed political and civil liberties with the aid of his efficient secret police. Leaders of the outlawed Accion Democratica Party were tortured and murdered. Social programs such as land reform that Accion Democratica had instituted between 1945 and 1948 were overturned.
In foreign policy Perez Jimenez took an anti-communist stance and closely aligned his country with the United States. He also attracted U. S. investment and awarded generous contracts to American oil companies.
Perez had four daughters with his wife, Flor Chalbaud.
