The political life of Carlos Andrés Pérez began at the age of 15, when he became a founding member of the Venezuelan Youth Association and a member of the National Democratic Party, both of which were opposed to the repressive administration of General
Eleazar López Contreras, who had succeeded the
dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935. He also co-operated with the first labour unions in his region. When he moved to
Caracas, in 1939, he started an ascendant political career as a youth leader and founder of the
Democratic Action (AD) party, in which he would play an important role during the 20th century, first as a close ally to party founder
Rómulo Betancourt and then as a political leader in his own right. In October 1945, a group of civilians and young army officers plotted the overthrow of the government run by General
Isaías Medina Angarita. At the age of 23, Pérez was appointed Private Secretary to the Junta President,
Rómulo Betancourt, and became Cabinet Secretary in 1946. However, in 1948, when the military staged a coup against the democratically elected government of
Rómulo Gallegos, Pérez was forced to go into exile (going to
Cuba,
Panama and
Costa Rica) for a decade. He temporarily returned to Venezuela secretly in 1952 to complete special missions in his fight against the new dictatorial government. He was imprisoned on various occasions and spent more than two years in jail in total. In Costa Rica, he was active in Venezuelan political refugee circles, worked as Editor in Chief of the newspaper
La República and kept in close contact with Betancourt and other AD leaders. In 1958, after the fall of dictator
Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Pérez returned to Venezuela and participated in the reorganization of the AD Party. He served as
Minister of Interior and Justice from 1959 to 1964 and made his mark as a tough minister and canny politician who worked to neutralize small, disruptive and radical right-wing and left-wing insurrections, the latter Cuban-influenced and Cuban-financed, that were being staged around the country. This was an important step in the pacification of the country in the mid-to-late 1960s, the consolidation of democracy and the integration of radical parties into the political process. Pérez was accused, however, of human rights violations during his tenure. After the end of the Betancourt administration and the
1963 elections, Pérez left government temporarily and dedicated himself to consolidating his support in the party. During this time, he served as head of the AD in Congress and was elected to the position of Secretary General of AD, a role that was crucial in laying the ground for his presidential ambitions.
First presidency and Carlos Andrés Pérez in Caracas, 1978 In 1973, Carlos Andrés Pérez was nominated to run for the presidency for AD. Youthful and energetic, Pérez ran a vibrant and triumphalist campaign, one of the first to use the services of American advertising gurus and political consultants in the country's history. During the run up to elections, he visited nearly all the villages and cities of Venezuela by foot and walked more than 5800 kilometers. He was elected in December of that year, receiving 48.7% of the vote against the 36.7% of his main rival. Turnout in these elections reached an unprecedented 97% of all eligible voters, a level which has not been achieved since. One of the most radical aspects of Pérez's program for government was the notion that petroleum oil was a tool for developing countries like Venezuela to attain first world status and usher a fairer, more equitable international order. International events, including the
Yom Kippur War of 1973, contributed to the implementation of this vision. Drastic increases in petroleum prices during the
1970s energy crisis led to an economic bonanza for the country just as Pérez started his term. Using high oil prices, Pérez bolstered his support, buying
patronage by subsidizing prices, increasing wages and tripling public spending. His policies, including the nationalization of the iron and petroleum industries. Following the establishment of
PDVSA,
corruption in Venezuela as a system of
patrimonialism was created. He also promoted investment in large state-owned industrial projects for the production of aluminium and hydroelectric energy, infrastructure improvements and the funding of social welfare and scholarship programmes, were ambitious and involved massive government spending, to the tune of almost . His measures to protect the environment and foster sustainable development earned the Earth Care award in 1975, the first time a Latin American leader had received this recognition. In the international arena, Pérez supported democratic and progressive causes in Latin America and the world. He reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba and submitted a resolution to the Organization of American States (OAS) that would have lifted economic sanctions against the country. He opposed the
Somoza and
Augusto Pinochet dictatorships and played a crucial role in the finalizing of the agreement for the transfer of the
Panama Canal from American to Panamanian control. In 1975, with Mexican President
Luis Echeverría, he founded SELA, the
Latin American Economic System, created to foster economic cooperation and scientific exchange between the nations of Latin America. He also supported the democratization process in Spain, as he brought
Felipe González, who was living in exile, back to Spain in a private flight and thus strengthened the
Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). Additionally, he negotiated a treaty with the USSR that called for the USSR to supply oil to Venezuela's Spanish market in exchange for Venezuela supplying the Soviet market in Cuba. Towards the end of his first term in office, Pérez's faced criticism for excessive government spending.
Second presidency during a visit to
Washington during his second term in office He based his campaign for the
1988 Venezuelan general election in his legacy of abundance during his
first presidential period and initially rejected liberalization policies. Venezuela's international reserves were only US$300 million at the time of Pérez' election into the presidency; Pérez decided to respond to the debt, public spending, economic restrictions and
rentier state by liberalizing the economy. Carlos Andrés announced a
technocratic cabinet and a group of economic policies to fix macroeconomic imbalances known as
El Gran Viraje (), called by detractors as
El Paquetazo Económico (). Pérez implemented such reforms without the support of political groups, including his own AD party, resulting with the AD blocking his future policies in Congress and pulling its support, with many perceiving the package as an act of betrayal. Among the policies there was the reduction of fuel subsidies and the increase of public transportation fares by thirty percent (VEB 16
Venezuelan bolívares, or US$0.4). a lack of timely intervention by authorities, as the
Caracas Metropolitan Police was on a
labor strike, led to the protests and rioting quickly spreading to the capital and other towns across the country. to extraofficial estimates of up to 5,000, the most violent period of unrest in Venezuela's democratic history.
Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch reported that
human rights in Venezuela deteriorated during Pérez's administration, with the latter human rights groups writing in 1993 that his "tenure was marked by an increase in human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, torture, extrajudicial executions, the violent repression of popular demonstrations and protests."
Torture in Venezuela during the Carlos Andrés Pérez administration was common according to Amnesty international, with the group saying that while the government and its laws condemned human rights abuses, authorities still performed torture methods that were "simple but sophisticated: they are designed to cause maximum pain with the minimum of marks." The most notable auction was
CANTV's, a telecommunications company, which was sold at the price of US$1.885 billion to the consortium composed of American
AT&T International, General Telephone Electronic and the Venezuelan
Electricidad de Caracas and
Banco Mercantil. The privatization ended Venezuela's monopoly over telecommunications and surpassed predictions, selling over US$1 billion above the base price and US$500 million more than the bid offered by its next competitor. By the end of the year, inflation had dropped to 31%, Venezuela's international reserves were now worth US$14 billion and there was an economic growth of 9% (called as an "Asian growth"), the largest in Latin America at the time. and during the process it was revealed that the money was used to support and hire bodyguards for President
Violeta Chamorro. On 21 May 1993, the
Supreme Court considered the accusation valid, and the following day the Senate voted to strip Pérez of his immunity. Many of those in the Senate who supported Pérez's impeachment were members of AD. Pérez refused to resign, but after the maximum 90 days temporary leave available to the President under Article 188 of the 1961 constitution, the National Congress removed Pérez from office permanently on 31 August. ==Post-presidency==