Background
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa was born on 14 March 1902 in La Asunción.
Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa was born on 14 March 1902 in La Asunción.
In 1936 he became one of the founders of Organización Venezolana (ORVE), the core of what was to become Acción Democrática, and mobilizied many teachers in its support. He was one of the leaders of the National Democratic Party (PDN), into which ORVE merged, and was deported by the Eleazar López Contreras government in early 1937. Upon his return, he became one of the principal figures of the PDN.
With legalization of PDN as Acción Democrática, Luis Beltrán Prieto was elected its second vice president. He was the principal liaison between the AD leadership and the young military in the conspiracy that overthrew President Isaías Medina Augarita.
With the overthrow of Medina Angarita in October 1945, Prieto became a member of the seven-man Revolutionary Government Junta presided over by Rómulo Betancourt, and also minister of education. He presided over a massive expansion and modernization of the country’s educational system.
When the AD regime was overthrown in November 1948, Prieto went into exile and during most of the next nine years worked for various United Nations agencies. After the Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship fell, he was elected secretary general of AD, and in the 1958 election was elected to the Senate. He also became President of Acción Democrática.
At the end of President Raúl Leoni’s administration, there were two candidates for the AD nomination, Luis Beltrán Prieto and Gonzalo Barrios. Prieto had the support of AD Secretary General Jesús Paz Galarraga but was strongly opposed by Rómulo Betancourt and President Leoni. Prieto and his followers withdrew from AD to form the Electoral Movement of the People (MEP), which nominated Prieto. He came in third, behind Social Christian Copei Party nominee Rafael Caldera Rodriguez and Barrios.
Prieto harbored great bitterness toward his old party. He continued as president of MEP, many of whose leaders and rank and file returned to Acción Democrática. Prieto continued to be a senator until 1983, but his presidential candidacies of 1978 and 1983 got such small support as to reduce MEP to a minor party.