End of Dictatorship in Venezuela?
ALEXANDER, ROBERT J.
Regime must decide whether it will hold free elections End of Dictatorship in Venezuela? By Robert J. Alexander Venezuela has scheduled a Presidential election for some time before April 1958,...
...to entertain his notorious chief of police, Pedro Estrada, with official receptions when he visits Washington...
...The Communist replied: "Oh, not yet...
...We're not ready...
...Thus, the democratic elements in Venezuela are taking a moderate, constructive stand...
...A major factor maintaining the Perez Jimenez regime in power is the friendly attitude of the United States...
...The only group which is gaining under the Perez Jimenez regime is the Communists...
...The Communists arc fullv aware that conlinikincc ol the 1'cuv Jimenez regime is lo llieir advantage...
...The Copei is not technically illegal, but it is not allowed to publish anything and its leaders are periodically jailed for varying lengths of time...
...asked where he met with them, he will name an address which he knows the police are already watching...
...There are several reasons for Washington's friendliness toward Perez Jimenez...
...Hence, he suffers little or no mistreatment...
...The principal political parties of Venezuela are Democratic Action, a moderate leftist group roughly comparable to Europe's democratic Socialists...
...However, they are not asking that one of their number be named to succeed Perez Jimenez...
...The "opposition'' Communist faction actually assigns certain members to get themselves arrested...
...Thousands of political exiles are scattered throughout the hemisphere...
...However, the democratic opposition can do little against his ruthless rule...
...and in every conceivable way to show its approval of Perez Jimenez as a "good neighbor...
...When democratic opponents are arrested, they are usually subjected to brutal torture, often resulting in death, in order to make them "talk...
...The opposition parties are, of course, anxious that there be a free election...
...Nor would overt American intervention be necessary...
...By Robert J. Alexander Venezuela has scheduled a Presidential election for some time before April 1958, when the current term of dictator-President Marcos Perez Jimenez expires...
...each of whom was secretary-general of the majority Democratic Action party at the time of his death...
...In the long run, however, it does the United States no good to gain the favor of Venezuela's current military bosses at the price of alienating her people...
...This country has gone out of its way to give the Venezuelan dictator medals...
...a private word at the proper time would be equally effective...
...The Government has no objection to this so long as the Communists help it in its vendetta against the democratic parties, particularly Democratic Action...
...he will name several—including some already in jail...
...A future democratic Venezuela that is resentful of U.S...
...and the Republican Democratic Union, which might be called a "New Deal" party...
...when asked who his friends are...
...Moreover, our policy has for the first time created the possibility that the Communists will emerge as a major contestant for power in that country...
...Whether they can prevail upon the Perez Jimenez regime to permit a peaceful return to political freedom depends in very large part on the attitude of the U.S...
...In addition to these democratic groups, there are the Communists, who for tactical purposes are divided into two factions...
...All they demand is the release of all political prisoners, the free return of political exiles, and restoration of freedom of the press, assembly and organization...
...support of Perez Jimenez will be neither a dependable military ally nor a safe source of oil...
...When questioned, such an individual will freely admit being a Communist...
...The Democratic Action and Republican Democratic Union parties have been outlawed by the dictatorship...
...The dictatorship has a long and bloody record of eliminating political opponents...
...Our military planners undoubtedly look upon Venezuela's 10,000-man army as a "valuable ally...
...After listening to the Communist for some time, our informant asked him whether he really would like to see the dictatorship overthrown...
...Venezuelans are wondering, however, whether General Perez Jimenez will actually permit them to choose their next chief of state, or will merely stage a sham ballot to perpetuate himself in office...
...The approaching end of Perez Jimenez's term of office presents the United States with an opportunity to change its stand...
...If the Communist proseh tizer succeeds in winning over only 10 per cent of those with whom he comes in contact, he has still gained converts of a caliber which the part) could never hope to lind by campaigning in the streets...
...Most Venezuelans unquestionably oppose the dictatorship, and Perez Jimenez maintains the Army's loyalty only by means of a "permanent purge...
...the Copei, a Catholic social party similar to the French MRP...
...Hundreds, perhaps thousands, have been held in jails and eonccnlration camps for as long as fivo or six years without being brought lo trial...
...One Communist faction is allowed to function in comparative freedom, even maintaining its own trade-union federations with relatively little interference from the ubiquitous National Security Police...
...But the Communists have little trouble of this sort...
...This writer was told recently of a conversation which a democratic oppositionist had with a Communist fellow-prisoner in Caracas...
...Then we'll want to see it overthrown...
...The three democratic parties say they would be willing to see a "transition government" like that elected under President Manuel Prado in Peru a year ago to put an end to the Odria dictatorship...
...For tyrannical brutality, the Venezuelan military dictatorship has probably been surpassed in this hemisphere only by that of Generalissimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo of the Dominican Republic...
...In jail, the Communist conducts an intensive propaganda campaign...
...This policy is driving democratic opponents of the dictatorship to desperation and making them increasingly susceptible to Communist appeals...
...They are well aware of the strategic importance of their country, the world's second largest oil producer, and feel their responsibility to the rest of the democratic world...
...Our oil planners are concerned with her vast petroleum resources...
...Many opposition leaders have been murdered in tile slrcels of Caracas or ill jail—including Leonardo Ruiz Pineda and Alberto Carnevnli...
...This is highly important, because the cream of the trade-union movement and of the younger ranks of politically active Venezuelans, as well as many intellectuals, are in prison...
...Give us a few more years, and we'll be the principal alternative to the dictatorship...
...Our Government can play a vital role in whether the dictator decides to maintain himself in power illegally or to hold honest elections...
...The military clique to which Perez Jimenez belongs seized power in November 1948 by overthrowing Venezuela's first popularly elected President, the noted novelist Romulo Gallegos...
...Even the wing of the Venezuelan Communist movement which is officially "opposed"' to the regime suffers little of the persecution endured by the democratic parties...
...After four years of jockeying for power, during which the senior member of the junta was murdered and the Government canceled the results of an election it was foolish enough to hold (the vote was running 4 to 1 against the regime), Perez Jimenez seized personal control in December 1952...
Vol. 40 • June 1957 • No. 26
