MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelans turn out for the burial of former president Carlos Andres Perez

CAP nationalized Venezuela’s oil industry and helped liberate Nicaragua

Thousands turned out in Caracas to pay their last respects to former Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who died in exile and will be buried on Thursday after months of litigation among family members on whether he should be brought back to his country.

Carlos Andrés – or CAP as he was more often called- was one of Latin America’s great leaders in the 20th century.

Among other things CAP as an active member of the International Social Democrats was a key factor in the transition to democracy in Portugal and Spain, the liberation of Nicaragua, pacification of Central America and in helping Panama have definitive control over the Canal.

In 1960 as homeland affairs minister he was in charge of efforts to crush the attempts by Castro-communist financed guerrillas to put an end to the newly-formed democracy in Venezuela.

In the 1970s, during his first term in office, CAP nationalized the mining and oil industries and fathered the creation of PDVSA as a state-owned oil company that was to be run in accordance with the standards and rules of a private company.

During his second term in office (1989-1993), he made efforts to correct the accumulation of errors and distortions of the previous five to six decades, including those committed during his first term in office.

Among his most far-reaching decisions were allowing the direct election of mayors and governors, inserting Venezuelan in the global economy, and starting an ambitious program of privatizations and real economy prices.

Unfortunately vested interests frustrated CAP efforts at reform and he ended up being the victim of a system of justice where the rule of law was subordinated to political interests.

On May 22, 1993, CAP was forced to resign after impeachment allegedly for having mismanaged Executive secret contingent funds, which was never proved. Nevertheless the Supreme Court of Justice found him guilty and sentenced him to two years four months of home arrest. However in 1999 he was again elected to Congress.

However again his enemies brought charges against him, the same that organized two bloody coup attempts during his second presidency (paratrooper captain Hugo Chavez) and the 1989 ‘Caracazo’ which had police forces in the streets to control riots killing over 300 people. He left the country in 2000 for the Dominican Republic and later Miami.

In the opinion of many analysts, the impeached departure of CAP from the presidency was the beginning of the end of democracy and a capitalist economy in Venezuela. His stepping down also signalled the arrival of Hugo Chavez whom CAP benefited with an amnesty in spite of having been found guilty as one of the 1992 coups’ leaders of the killings of tens of civilians and soldiers.

The remains of Perez arrived in Venezuela nine months after his death in Miami at age 88 set off a feud between his wife, who wanted to bring the body home, and his mistress in the United States, who said Perez had vowed repeatedly never to return as long as political arch-nemesis Hugo Chavez was president.

There are no plans for any kind of state funeral in a Venezuela governed by Chavez, who once led a failed and bloody coup against Perez.

Speaking during an interview broadcast on state television, President Chavez lamented Perez's death while criticizing the ex-president's politics. Chavez suggested the economic policies implemented by Perez increased poverty and spurred the 1989 riots.

The self-proclaimed revolutionary, a former lieutenant colonel who has been an outspoken critic of Perez and his political allies, also justified his effort to oust Perez through a 1992 coup attempt.