Presidency of Raúl Leoni

Raúl Leoni served as President of Venezuela from March 13, 1964, to March 11, 1969.

Background

In the elections of 1963 the Democratic Action (AD) candidate Raúl Leoni, a long-time ally of Rómulo Betancourt (President from 1959 to 1964) from the times of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, won handily. Rafael Caldera of COPEI came second. The Wolfgang Larrazábal political phenomenon was eclipsed and Jóvito Villalba on his own came just behind Caldera. AD was still the pardo party by excellence, but Caracas was definitely lost.

Presidency

Raúl Leoni's presidency saw the construction of the Guri Dam, a power station with a combined installed capacity of 1750 megawatts (MW) that created a reservoir which is the largest fresh water body of water in Venezuela and one of the largest man-made blackwater lakes ever created. Leoni's government was unexceptional, but it was Leoni who had to liquidate the remnants of the communist insurrection, for which he put the army in charge of the country with carte blanche to be as ruthless as it had to. But in fact it was the communist guerrilleros themselves who brought about their own liquidation. They had no rural support whatsoever. Unlike guerrillas all over the world, they did not control villages and lived from hand to mouth. They knew they were no match for the army and avoided confrontations. Castro had been hoping that Venezuela would be the second act of the Latin American revolution, and he tried to supply the Venezuelan guerrillas. This was in keeping with the theory of what could be called the "permanent agrarian revolution", which the French intellectual Régis Debray had expressed in the widely circulated book Revolution Inside the Revolution and Ernesto "Che" Guevara had been trying to carry out first in Africa and later, fatally for him, in Bolivia. Castro sent a trusted officer, Manuel Ochoa, to assess the Venezuelan guerrillas, and the report that he brought was negative, which effectively ended Cuba's intervention in Venezuelan affairs. By then the Venezuelan leftists had given up on violence and were seeking legalization, but Leoni did not offer it. Ochoa was later tried and executed by Castro on an unlikely charge of drug-smuggling.

Cabinet

Ministries
OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Raúl Leoni	1964–1969
Home Affairs	Gonzalo Barrios	1964–1966
	Reinaldo Leandro Mora	1966–1969
Outer Relations	Ignacio Iribarren Borges	1964–1969
Finance	Andrés Germán Otero	1964–1965
	Eddy Morales Crespo	1965–1967
	Benito Raúl Losada	1967–1968
	Francisco Mendoza	1968–1969
Defense	Ramón Florencio Gómez	1964–1969
Development	Manuel Egaña	1964
	Luis Hernández Solís	1964–1968
	Aura Celina Casanova	1968–1969
Public Works	Leopoldo Sucre Figarella	1964–1969
Education	José Manuel Siso Martínez	1964–1969
Labor	Eloy Lares Martínez	1964
	Hens Silva Torres	1964–1967
	Simón Antoni Paván	1967–1968
	Raúl Valera	1968–1969
Communications	Lorenzo Azpúrua Marturet	1964
	J. J. González Gorrondona	1964–1966
	Héctor Santaella	1966–1967
	Juan Manuel Domínguez Chacín	1967–1968
	Lorenzo Azpúrua Marturet	1968–1969
Agriculture	Alejandro Osorio	1964
	Juan José Palacios	1964–1965
	Pedro Segnini La Cruz	1965–1966
	Alejandro Osorio	1966–1969
Health and Social Assistance	Alfredo Arreaza Guzmán	1964
	Domingo Guzmán Lander	1964–1967
	Alfonso Araujo Belloso	1967–1968
	Armando Soto Rivera	1968–1969
Justice	Miguel Ángel Burelli Rivas	1964
	Ramón Escovar Salom	1964–1966
	José S. Núñez Aristimuño	1966–1969
Mines and Hydrocarbons	Manuel Pérez Guerrero	1964–1967
	José Antonio Mayobre	1967–1969
Secretary of Presidency	Manuel Mantilla	1964–1969

See also

• History of Venezuela (1908–1958)