TYRANNY ON OUR DOORSTEP
Alexander, Robert J.
Tyranny on Our Doorstep By Robert J. Alexander VENEZUELA has a melancholy history of dictatorships. Throughout the 19th Century the nation suffered under one tyranny after another. A generation...
...Perez Jimenez, whom it pictured more or less as the Venezuelan Peron— without mentioning his Argentine counterpart...
...The chief of the party in Tachira was sent into exile, and most of the party's leaders were deported...
...For a decade or more after the death of Juan Vicente Gomez, Venezuela seemed to be making progress toward democracy...
...Several minor leaders of the party were sent to the Guasina concentration camp...
...The summoning of the Nov...
...The government's party in the election was the Frente Electoral ln-dependiente...
...The situation changed when the votes were in...
...Only after four years in power did the Military Junta call elections for yet another constitutional assembly...
...However, the military leaders of the regime were not willing to allow the victory of the URD, in spite of pre-electoral protestations of their willingness to abide by the election results...
...Medina Angarita, president from 1941 to 1945, continued this process, though still maintaining a modified dictatorship...
...A few of us who maintain an active interest in Latin American affairs have sought from time to time to point out what has been going on there...
...Not only did they refuse to recognize the results of the election they themselves had called, but they arbitrarily named a provisional president—a task they had promised to leave to the Constituent Assembly elected Nov...
...All government employees were forced to join it, as were those who wished to do business with the government...
...Its chief trade union leader was arrested and kept in jail for several months without being brought to trial...
...The two colonels—Perez Jimenez and Llovera Paez—were unable for two years longer to decide which should be the top dog...
...25, 1948 the Military Junta overthrew President Gallegos, arresting him and the members of his government, as well as most of the other important leaders of Accion Democratic...
...The latest chapter in its sad career was the stealing of the Nov...
...Trujillo of the Dominican Republic...
...Perez Jimenez was now Provisional President of Venezuela "by decision of the armed forces...
...It is to be devoutly hoped that at least some of the delegates to that Council meeting will ask a few pertinent questions about political freedom and the Guasina concentration camp during their stay in the Venezuelan capital...
...In the last weeks of the campaign, the Military Junta opened a new campaign of terror...
...Collaborating with the Democratic Action Party was a group of young military men, headed by Col...
...The trade union and peasant movements grew by leaps and bounds...
...Quite obviously the militarist group in power intends to stay there...
...Marcos Perez Jimenez as Provisional President of the Republic...
...The largest legal political party before the election was the Copei, a Christian Social organization, which had been the chief opposition party during the Action Democratica regime...
...In spite of its tenacity and ferocity, the Venezuelan dictatorship has aroused but little comment...
...Most of the top leaders of the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela are in prison or in concentration camps...
...riety of persecutions...
...Rivalry among the top military' men in the regime had prevented a move toward reestablishing a "constitutional" government up to that time...
...It is a regime which in America is matched in ferocity only by that of the "Jackal of the Caribbean," Gen...
...30 election did not come out as the Military Junta had hoped...
...A constitutional assembly sitting in 1946-47 wrote a new and modern democratic constitution...
...Leonardo Ruiz Pineda, leader of the underground Action Democratica party, was assassinated in the streets of Caracas by police officers...
...The second most important legal opposition party before the election was the Union Republicana Democratica, a moderately leftist party, strongly against the military crowd...
...It was further announced that the FEI, the government party, had won the election after all...
...Leaders of the students of the Central University in Caracas, who protested against the attempt of the military dictatorship to destroy the autonomy of the university, were shipped off to the Guasina concentration camp...
...30 elections and the tone of the propaganda of the Junta's political tool indicated that Perez Jimenez was pulling ahead...
...It too was subject to persecution...
...On Nov...
...They supported the move to strengthen democracy in all aspects of Venezuelan life...
...Gomez was succeeded in 1936 by Gen...
...For the first time there were elections held under universal adult suffrage...
...Its principles were nebulous and consisted mainly in supporting the government in its every act, and especially Col...
...A generation ago Juan Vicente Gomez won the doubtful distinction of being known as "the tyrant of the Andes...
...They have been held without trial for more than two years, some of them incommunicado...
...They outlawed Accion Democratica, dissolved Congress, and declared a state of siege...
...From 1945 to 1948 the country took great steps in the direction of modern democracy, under the leadership of Presidents Romulo Betan-court and Romulo Gallegos and their Accion Democratica party...
...This surprising development undoubtedly meant that the URD had received the support of the voters of the outlawed Action Democratica party, with which it had political kinship...
...But officially neither the United States nor any other government has paid them heed...
...II Thus the Venezuelan militarists have completely repudiated their promises...
...In spite of all of its measures the Nov...
...Carlos Delgado Chalbaud and Maj...
...When this curtain of silence was finally raised, the government announced that the Military Junta was no more, and that Col...
...The first returns indicated that the Union Republicana Democratica was far in the lead...
...There was broader freedom of discussion and of press and assembly than the country had ever known...
...As soon as the votes began to indicate that the URD was victorious, the Military Junta imposed a complete censorship...
...The country's major party, Accion Democratica, was not allowed to participate...
...So sure were they that their terrorism would be effective, that they insisted everyone vote, and they apparently permitted the people to cast their votes as they pleased...
...The election took place under great difficulties...
...In July all of the members of the National Executive Committee of the Copei were arrested and held in prison for 48 hours...
...The parties allowed to name candidates and seek votes were subject to a vaROBERT J. ALEXANDER, associate professor of economics at Rutgers University, has traveled widely in Latin America, visited Venezuela last summer, is the author of "The Peron Era," and has written a number of articles and pamphlets on the problems of Latin America...
...However, the Military Junta did everything possible to make it difficult for the Copei to function...
...It had its chief center of strength in the state of Tachira, the most solidly Catholic region of the nation...
...Mario Vargas...
...However, there were many of the army's officers who were not happy over the prospect that the army might lose its dominant role in the country's political life...
...So callous is the outside world that the United Nations is planning to hold the February meeting of its Social and Economic Council in Caracas...
...30 election and the proclamation of Col...
...The Venezuelan jails are filled to overflowing with political prisoners...
...Eleazar Lopez Contreras, who proceeded to unwind slowly the bonds of tyranny which his predecessor had woven...
...Now the military regime which has that unhappy country in its grasp, seems bent upon repeating these sad pages from the Venezuelan past...
Vol. 17 • February 1953 • No. 2
