Editing Venezuela (section)

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Rómulo Betancourt, 1961.jpg|thumb|[[Rómulo Betancourt]] (president 1945–1948 / 1959–1964), one of the major democratic leaders of Venezuela]]
The discovery of massive [[oil field|oil deposits]] in Lake Maracaibo during World War I<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-23/in-this-issue/exploration/a-modern-look-at-the-petroleum-geology-of-the-maracaibo-basin-venezuela.html|last1=Stauffer|first1=Karl W.|last2=Croft|first2=Gregory D.|title=A modern look at the petroleum geology of the Maracaibo Basin, Venezuela|journal=Oil & Gas Journal|date=1995|volume=93|issue=23|access-date=3 October 2017|archive-date=3 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003230431/http://www.ogj.com/articles/print/volume-93/issue-23/in-this-issue/exploration/a-modern-look-at-the-petroleum-geology-of-the-maracaibo-basin-venezuela.html|url-status=live}}</ref> proved pivotal for Venezuela and transformed its economy from a heavy dependence on agricultural exports. It prompted a boom that lasted into the 1980s; by 1935, Venezuela's per capita gross domestic product was Latin America's highest.{{sfn|Crow|1980|pp=616–617}} Gómez benefited handsomely from this, as corruption thrived, but at the same time, the new source of income helped him centralize the state and develop its authority.

Gómez remained the most powerful man in Venezuela until his death in 1935. The ''gomecista'' dictatorship (1935–1945) system largely continued under [[Eleazar López Contreras]], but from 1941, under [[Isaías Medina Angarita]], was relaxed. Angarita granted a range of reforms, including the legalization of all political parties. After World War II, immigration from Southern Europe and poorer Latin American countries markedly diversified Venezuelan society.<ref>{{cite journal | pmc=2931359 | year=2010 |author1=DURAND J |author2=MASSEY DS |title=New World Orders: Continuities and Changes in Latin American Migration | journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | volume=630 | issue=1 | pages=20–52 | doi=10.1177/0002716210368102 | pmid=20814591}}</ref>

In 1945, a civilian-military coup overthrew Medina Angarita and ushered in [[El Trienio Adeco|a period of democratic rule]] (1945–1948) under the mass membership party [[Democratic Action (Venezuela)|Democratic Action]], initially under [[Rómulo Betancourt]], until [[Rómulo Gallegos]] won the [[1947 Venezuelan presidential election]] (the first free and fair elections in Venezuela).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Da Silva P|first=José Luis|date=2013|title=Venezuelan Democracy in the 20th Century. The Struggle Between the Military and the Non–Military|journal=Politeja|volume=10|issue=24|pages=49–68|doi=10.12797/politeja.10.2013.24.05|s2cid=155380658|issn=1733-6716|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Davilaa|first=Luis Ricardo|date=April 2000|title=The rise and fall and rise of populism in Venezuela|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2000.tb00101.x|journal=Bulletin of Latin American Research|volume=19|issue=2|pages=223–238|doi=10.1111/j.1470-9856.2000.tb00101.x|issn=0261-3050|access-date=23 February 2021|archive-date=29 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129031901/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2000.tb00101.x|url-status=live}}</ref> Gallegos governed until overthrown by a military junta led by the triumvirate {{Interlanguage link|Luis Felipe Llovera Páez|es|Luis Llovera Páez}}, [[Marcos Pérez Jiménez]], and Gallegos' Defense Minister, [[Carlos Delgado Chalbaud]], in the [[1948 Venezuelan coup d'état|1948 Venezuelan ''coup d'état'']].

[[File:Carlos Andrés Pérez.jpg|thumb|left|upright|President [[Carlos Andrés Pérez]] was [[impeached]] on corruption charges in 1993.]]
The most powerful man in the military ''junta'' (1948–58) was Pérez Jiménez and he was suspected of being behind the death of Chalbaud, who died in a bungled kidnapping in 1950. When the junta unexpectedly lost the [[1952 Venezuelan presidential election|1952 presidential election]], it ignored the results and Jiménez was installed as president.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}} Jiménez was forced out on 23 January 1958.<ref name="ciawfb" /> In an effort to consolidate a young democracy, the three major political parties ([[Acción Democrática]] (AD), [[COPEI]] and [[Unión Republicana Democrática]] (URD), with the notable exception of the [[Communist Party of Venezuela]]), signed the [[Puntofijo Pact]] power-sharing agreement. AD and COPEI dominated the political landscape for four decades.

During the presidencies of [[Rómulo Betancourt]] (1959–64, his second term) and [[Raúl Leoni]] (1964–69), substantial guerilla movements occurred. Most laid down their arms under [[Rafael Caldera]]'s first presidency (1969–74). Caldera had won the [[1968 Venezuelan presidential election|1968 election]] for COPEI, the first time a party other than Democratic Action took the presidency through a democratic election. The new democratic order had its antagonists. Betancourt [[Assassination attempt of Rómulo Betancourt|suffered an attack]] planned by the Dominican dictator [[Rafael Trujillo]] in 1960, and the leftists excluded from the Pact initiated an insurgency by organizing themselves into the Armed Forces of National Liberation, sponsored by the Communist Party and [[Fidel Castro]]. In 1962 they tried to destabilize the military corps, with failed revolts. Betancourt promoted a foreign policy, the [[Betancourt Doctrine]], in which he only recognized elected governments by popular vote.{{Request quotation|date=April 2018}}
[[File:Caracas Sabana Grande 1973.jpg|thumb|[[Sabana Grande, Caracas|Sabana Grande]] district, [[Caracas]] (1973)]]

The [[1973 Venezuelan presidential election]] of [[Carlos Andrés Pérez]] coincided with an [[1973 oil crisis|oil crisis]], in which Venezuela's income exploded as [[oil prices]] soared; oil industries were nationalized in 1976. This led to massive increases in public spending, but also increases in external debts, until the collapse of oil prices during the 1980s crippled the economy. As the government started to devalue the currency in 1983 to face its financial obligations, standards of living fell dramatically. Failed economic policies and increasing corruption in government led to rising poverty and crime, worsening social indicators, and increased political instability.<ref name="Schuyler_2001_10">{{cite journal |last=Schuyler |first=George W. |journal=The Policy Studies Organization |title=Health and Neoliberalism: Venezuela and Cuba |year=2001 |page=10}}</ref>

In the 1980s, the Presidential Commission for State Reform (COPRE) emerged as a mechanism of political innovation. Venezuela decentralized its political system and diversified its economy, reducing the size of the state. COPRE operated as an innovation mechanism, also by incorporating issues into the political agenda, that were excluded from public deliberation by the main actors of the democratic system. The most discussed topics were incorporated into the public agenda: decentralization, political participation, municipalization, judicial order reforms and the role of the state in a new economic strategy. The social reality made the changes difficult to apply.<ref name=":32">{{cite journal|last=Conde|first=Edith Mabel Cuñarro|date=2004|title=Venezuela 1984–1999: 15 años de historia (La Comisión Presidencial para la Reforma del Estado (COPRE) como mecanismo de innovación política)|url=http://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/cuestiones/article/view/14388|journal=Cuestiones Políticas|language=es|volume=20|issn=0798-1406|access-date=8 April 2018|number=33|archive-date=9 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180409043215/http://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/cuestiones/article/view/14388|url-status=live}}</ref>

Economic crises in the 1980s and 1990s led to a political crisis. Hundreds of people were killed by security forces and the military in the ''[[Caracazo]]'' riots of 1989, during the second presidential term of Carlos Andrés Pérez (1989–1993) and after the implementation of economic austerity measures.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rivero|first=Mirtha|author-link=Mirtha Rivero|title=La Rebelión de los Náufragos|publisher=Editorial Alfa|year=2010|isbn=978-980-354-295-5|location=Caracas, Venezuela|pages=109|chapter=10}}</ref> [[Hugo Chávez]], who in 1982 had promised to depose the bipartisanship governments, used the growing anger at economic austerity measures to justify a [[1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts|coup attempt in February 1992]];<ref name="Marquez124">{{harvsp|Marquez|2018|p=124}}</ref><ref name="BBCprofile" /> a [[November 1992 Venezuelan coup attempt|second coup d'état attempt occurred in November]].<ref name="BBCprofile">{{cite news |title=Profile: Hugo Chavez |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1925236.stm |access-date=5 June 2007 |work=BBC News |date=5 December 2002 |quote=Mr Chavez first came to prominence in February 1992 when he led an attempt to overthrow the government of President Carlos Andres Perez amid growing anger at economic austerity measures. |archive-date=18 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518212055/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1925236.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> President Carlos Andrés Pérez (re-elected in 1988) was impeached under embezzlement charges in 1993, leading to the interim presidency of [[Ramón José Velásquez]] (1993–1994). Coup leader Chávez [[Rafael Caldera#Amnesty to the 1992 coup participants|was pardoned in March 1994]] by president Rafael Caldera (1994–1999, his second term), with a clean slate and his political rights reinstated, allowing Chávez to win and maintain the presidency continuously from 1999 until his death in 2013. Chávez won the elections of 1998, 2000, 2006 and 2012 and the presidential referendum of 2004.