Carlos Andres Perez

Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (Rubio, October 27, 1922 - Miami, December 25, 2010), also known as CAP for the initials of his name, He was a Venezuelan politician belonging to the Democratic Action (AD) party, who served as President of the Republic in two periods (1974-1979 and 1989-1993).

His first term is known as the stage of "Saudi Venezuela" due to the flow of petrodollars that entered from the export of Venezuelan oil as a consequence of the Arab oil embargo. Taking into account the high oil production and the accumulated inflation of the US dollar, the oil bonanza of this period could be the second largest that Venezuela registered in its history, after the one received by the military Hugo Chávez. In the year In 1977, Venezuela's per capita GDP reached its all-time high, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), recorded by the National Academy of Economic Sciences. Since then, the Domestic Product Gross (GDP) per capita has not returned to stable growth for a long period of time until now.

His second term began with an indebted economy with more than 6,500 million dollars in letters of credit due to expire in July 1989, which forced him to take strict economic measures a few days after his ascension that provoked the protest known as the Caracazo, was marked by the privatization of public companies and corruption scandals that would culminate in his dismissal as president, before the declaration of origin of a merit trial by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela accused of embezzlement of public funds and fraud to the nation. Both the corruption scandals and the Caracazo were used as an argument first by Hugo Chávez and then by Hernán Grüber Odremán to carry out two coup attempts, the first occurred on February 4 led by Hugo Chávez and the second occurred on November 27, 1992 led by Hernán Gruber Odremán, respectively.^{[citation required]}

When he was separated from his functions by the National Congress on May 21, 1993, accused of the crime of embezzlement of public funds, he became the only president in office in the history of Venezuela to be dismissed for an action judicial. The 250 million bolívares came from the secret department of the ministry, the use of which is discretionary according to Venezuelan legislation (some 4.54 million dollars at the T.C. of 55 bolívares per dollar between 1991 and 1992). The defense and security of the State are of a confidential and secret nature, for which reason the disclosure of any information related to them entails a crime punishable by the Penal Code. The secret nature of the expenses did not allow us to verify the veracity of the facts.

In 1998 he was elected as a senator for his native state before the National Congress, later dissolved by the National Constituent Assembly that drafted the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999. He would live his last years in self-exile in the Dominican Republic and the United States.

Biography

Family Life

Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez was born on October 27, 1922 in Vega de la Pipa, Rubio jurisdiction, capital of the current Junín Municipality of Táchira State, into a family dedicated to the cultivation and trade of coffee. His father, Antonio Pérez Lemus, was a landowner and merchant of Asturian descent born in Chinácota, Norte de Santander, Colombia, but living in Venezuela since the turn of the century XIX . His mother, Julia Rodríguez, was a Venezuelan born in Rubio, the daughter of a prominent local landowner and granddaughter of Federal War refugees from Barinas. He was the penultimate of the thirteen children of the marriage. His siblings are: Nicolasa, Ana Julia, Ángela, Antonio Rafael, Germán I, Germán II, Jorge Enrique, Hugo, Francisco, Luis Roberto, Miguel Ángel and Armando.

CAP and his first daughters: Sonia and Thaís.

At that time, he showed his inclinations for politics, acting as president of the Student Center of said institution. He married his cousin Blanca Rodríguez in 1948, having from that marriage six children, Sonia, Thais, Martha, Carlos Manuel, María de los Ángeles and María Carolina. Although Pérez separated from his wife in 1998 and settled in Miami with his sentimental partner, Cecilia Matos, the Pérez Rodríguez marriage continued as the only legal union for the former president until his death on December 25, 2010.

Carlos Andrés Pérez's sentimental relationship with Cecilia Matos began in the late 1960s, when Matos was secretary of the Acción Democrática parliamentary faction in Congress. This sentimental relationship was controversial due to persistent rumors and accusations of corruption and influence peddling that revolved around the figure of Matos, both at the end of Pérez's first government and during his second term. Matos's luxurious and extravagant way of life was repeatedly presented by the political opposition as irrefutable proof of the former president's administrative irregularities and lack of honesty, allegations that Pérez always rejected. Pérez recognized the daughters of his relationship with Matos as his, María Francia and Cecilia Victoria Pérez Matos.^{[citation required]}

Studies

He studied primary education in Rubio at the María Inmaculada School, until 1935, sixth grade and the first year of high school. In Caracas, Carlos Andrés Pérez completed his baccalaureate at the Andrés Bello high school in this city, graduating with a bachelor's degree in philosophy. Later, he started Law at the Central University of Venezuela, there he "studied three years", which he continues "one at the Free University of Bogotá and another in Costa Rica", more precisely at the University of Costa Rica.

In the General Archive of the Free University it is recorded that he entered it in 1949 to study his third year of Law; about this experience he expressed:

I studied at the Free University in a liberal environment, when I was informed that they were looking for me and had to leave the country. I resolved to return to Venezuela clandestinely. I traveled to Cúcuta...

Carlos Andrés Pérez

Political life

Beginnings

In 1938, he joined the ranks of the National Democratic Party, which would later give rise to the Acción Democrática (AD) party in 1941. Known —since then— generally by its initials CAP.

He began studying Law at the Central University of Venezuela, but interrupted them due to the political changes that occurred in the country as a consequence of the events that occurred on October 18, 1945, the date on which the coup d'état against President Isaias Medina Angarita. This event led him to hold important political positions, including private secretary to the president of the Government Junta, Rómulo Betancourt, and secretary of the Council of Ministers.

In 1946, he was elected deputy to the Legislative Assembly of the state of Táchira, and in 1947, deputy to the National Congress for the same federal entity. In 1948, during the overthrow of the writer and representative of his party, President Rómulo Gallegos, he was arrested for participating in the efforts to install an emergency government in Maracay that would replace, in accordance with the Constitution, the president deposed by the coup d'état of the November 24.

He remained a prisoner in Caracas for a year (1949), until he was expelled from the country. He clandestinely returned to Venezuela to join the resistance developed by the Acción Democrática party against the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, being arrested by the Directorate of National Security and confined in Puerto Ayacucho. After a second expulsion, he joined Rómulo Betancourt in Havana. In 1952, he went to live in San José, Costa Rica with his wife and children, where he would remain for the rest of the dictatorship, exercising the profession of editor and journalist along with his activities within the community of Venezuelan exiles. In Costa Rica, he establishes friendships with José Figueres Ferrer and his family.

Following the events of January 23, 1958 that put an end to the dictatorship, he returned to Venezuela, immediately dedicating himself to the consolidation of the incipient democratic system and the reorganization of AD in the state of Táchira. In December 1958, he was elected deputy for the state of Táchira for the period 1959-1964. On February 2, 1960, he was appointed by President Rómulo Betancourt as the first director general of the Ministry of Interior Relations (1960).

Minister of Internal Affairs

On March 12, 1962, he was appointed Minister of Interior Relations. His tenure at the ministry was characterized by energetically confronting the guerrilla uprisings —led mainly by the National Liberation Armed Forces (FALN)— fomented by the left with the support of the Cuban government. On February 18, 1963, he provisionally assumed the Presidency, replacing Betancourt who was on a tour of the United States.

His efforts during this period, especially defeating military uprisings and left-wing guerrillas that Betancourt had isolated politically in the early 1960s, earned him the reputation of a "strongman".

During the five years of the government of President Raúl Leoni (1964-1969) he returned to the National Congress as head of the parliamentary faction of Acción Democrática. In 1968 he appeared in said organization as national secretary and member of the National Executive Committee, position in which he remained during the five-year period chaired by Rafael Caldera (1969-1974).

Presidential candidacy

Carlos Andrés Pérez in his electoral campaign in 1973

Democratic Action hosted the stage of the National Convention for the election of its candidate. Within the framework of this event, held at the Teatro California, on August 19, 1972, Carlos Andrés Pérez defeated Reinaldo Leandro Mora by 290 votes to 111. Pérez had the support of its founder Rómulo Betancourt, launching the slogan "Democracy with energy". It is in the CAP campaign of 1972-73, when the famous foreign strategists make their appearance on the Venezuelan electoral scene. This is known about the initial participation of Joseph Napolitan, one of the most reputable campaign advisers in the universe of electoral strategies, along with Clifford White and George Gaither, renowned international advisers. From the advice of these experts, it is when the use of public opinion research comes into force, as an infallible method for strengthening the campaign strategy. Surveys and focus groups set the pace assertively as a novelty in the electoral framework.

A controversial electoral campaign was developed, “the man who walks”, using for the first time in the history of Venezuela the best marketing and advertising talents of the time (Grupo Gallup and Chelique Sarabia, among others) to sell a message This campaign was focused on oil, which had made Venezuela the country with the highest income per capita in South America, but which at that time was going through a strong economic recession as a result of the reflation suffered by the United States (the main buyer of Venezuelan crude) due to the oil embargo caused as a result of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. Pérez's idea was the use of oil as an instrument of political and economic pressure from the Third World to obtain a fairer order in the external order, and a broad policy of public spending, especially in the educational and social order. The campaign convinced and was a success, obtaining victory with 2,142,427 votes, 48.7% of the votes against those of the COPEI candidate, Lorenzo Fernández, who obtained 36.7%. He assumed power on March 12, 1974, receiving the presidential inauguration from Rafael Caldera.

First presidency (1974-1979)

In his first year in office, he developed two initiatives related to the cultural sphere: the Ayacucho Library (qualified as a collection of masterpieces of Latin American letters) and the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho Scholarship Program, for the training of thousands of students Venezuelans in the most prestigious university centers in the world. That same year he decreed the creation of nine national parks, to guarantee the protection of ecosystems and endemic fauna. The 1974 national budget, approved for Bs. 14,585,000,000, had to be modified and increased to Bs. 42,519,000,000 due to the growth in the price of oil. On May 31, 1974, the National Congress approved a Special Law that allowed “dictate extraordinary measures in economic and financial matters”. In 1975 he nationalized the iron industry and the following year, the oil industry, creating the company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) with the purpose of providing the State with a tool for the administration of oil resources. At the end of his term, he was able to affirm the absolute normality registered in the military order throughout his five-year term. For his insistent care in protecting nature and in favor of ecological recovery, he received in 1975 the world recognition of the Earth Care Award, awarded for the first time to a Latin American head of state. In 1976 he became the vice president of the Socialist International.

Foreign Policy

Jimmy Carter and Carlos Andrés Pérez at the Palacio de Miraflores, Caracas, 1978

In foreign policy, Pérez -as did his predecessor Rafael Caldera- partly broke with the "Betancourt Doctrine" and reestablished relations with Cuba in December 1974; He opposed the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle (Nicaragua) and supported the "strong man" of Panama, Omar Torrijos Herrera, in his negotiations with the United States for the delivery of the Panama Canal.

He maintained good relations with the rest of the governments of Latin America and Europe, especially with Spain and with Nicolae Ceaușescu,^{[citation required]} as well as the Middle East, the People's Republic of China and the USSR.

He energetically rejected the military dictatorship of Chile, breaking diplomatic relations at the embassy level with Santiago and receiving thousands of Chilean exiles in Venezuela and even sending a plane to Washington to collect the remains of former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier, assassinated by agents of the DYNE.

He maintained good and cordial relations with the United States, placing Venezuela as one of the main oil suppliers to that nation.^{[citation needed]}

Economy

Pérez maintained the interventionist economic policy that had been applied in Venezuela since 1936. During the first two years of his government he tried to apply a policy of Full Employment and granted through the so-called Law against unfair dismissals of 1974, an immense power to union representation. This resulted in a large growth in circulating liquidity and impacted consumption until 1977. Until 1979, the national economy had a high flow of money, but a devaluation of the currency was already necessary. Due to the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this was postponed until 1983. As the exchange rate of the bolivar against the dollar had not been adjusted, an unreal situation existed and the bolivar was overvalued. Researcher Aguirre comments:

At the beginning of 1979, concern increased, increasing capital outflows. However, the fall of the Shah of Iran in January of that year and the subsequent radicalization of the Ayatollah Khomeini regime generated the second energy crisis due to the abrupt reduction of the oil production of that country.

Pedro

The oil boom

As a consequence of the large increase in oil prices in the mid-1970s, the revenues of the national public sector skyrocketed. Thanks to the Venezuelan legislation in force at the time, the oil companies increased the sale of dollars to the Central Bank of Venezuela and thus obtained the bolivars they needed to pay taxes to the Treasury, given the high income received in international markets. The government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, on average, had an average misery index of 20%.

Economic indicators

During this government, the per capita GDP of the economy grew an average of 0.27% per year, despite the increase in GDP. Population growth in this period could be the reason.^{[ citation required]} For its part, the average unemployment rate was 5.88%, very similar to that of the first government of President Caldera, while the average annual inflation reached 8,2 %. In relation to this last indicator, it should be mentioned that it is from this government on when the Venezuelan economy begins to experience instability in the behavior of prices that extends to the present. In addition, the misery index grew five points with respect to the previous democratic period of Rafael Caldera and remained at 14.08 points on average. This suggests that the Venezuelan's living conditions worsened, although by the end of the period the misery index had dropped to 11.67.

Oil rentism

According to the economists Ricardo Hausmann and Francisco Rodríguez, in this period the non-oil per capita GDP of Venezuela began to drop. From 1978 to 2001, non-oil real GDP fell 20% in Venezuela. The productivity factor had a sustained drop since 1978, motivated by causes ranging from the decrease in investment in public infrastructure, the increasing rigor of labor market regulations and the collapse of financial intermediation. In this period, the historical peak of non-oil real GDP was reached.

This phenomenon has been explained by various economic theories, including Dutch disease. In the first decades, the income received from oil exports sustained the growth of other sectors of the national economy, but at some point this trend began to reverse. Venezuela began to depend more on oil production, which had already been the main item of its economy for several years. For the Venezuelan exchange system to be viable and not generate uncertainty, it was necessary to maintain an optimal level of international reserves, even in periods of falling exports. In this way, businessmen would be convinced that there would be no shortage. However, Pedro Palma comments:

One of the basic conditions for maintaining a fixed rate of exchange in an economy such as Venezuela, characterized by a low diversification of its exports and highly vulnerable to violent fluctuations in oil prices, is to have such an international level of reserves that convince economic agents that, even in periods of export decline, full satisfaction of foreign demand is guaranteed. Obviously, that condition has not been present in our economy since price volatility began in international hydrocarbon markets. All of the above, combined with fiscal imbalances resulting from the broadly expansive policies that were introduced during those years, broke the stability, continuity and predictability situation that characterized much of the period prior to 1974. In other words, the fundamental balances of the economy disappeared, giving way to instability, abrupt changes and high exposure to violent fluctuations in vitally important variables. This obviously contributed to making the fixed exchange rate scheme unsustainable and unviable.

Pedro

Labor policy

On June 4, 1974, Decree Law No. 122 was published in the Official Gazette No. 30415, where the term national minimum wage was established for the first time in the history of Venezuela. It indicates in article 1 that "the national minimum wage is set at 15 bolivars per day of work". At that time it was 450 bolivars per month, at the exchange rate of that year of Bs. 4.30 per dollar, which gives us about 104.65 dollars as the first minimum wage in Venezuela.

Resource Abundance Syndrome

Despite the high oil revenues received in this decade, the increase in per capita income that had been sustained since the 1920s came to a halt in the 1970s. The Venezuelan economy experienced a process of stagnation in the last years of this decade. The economists Ricardo Hausmann and Francisco Rodríguez suggest two causes that explain this situation: the syndrome of abundance (Easterly) and inequality (Becker). The abundance of resources that the State received thanks to its oil income and the lack of economic freedoms generated the stagnation seen in that decade.

Capital outflow

In this period, important capitals left Venezuela, especially in recent years. The expansive fiscal situation in Venezuela and the possibility of a devaluation of the currency did not generate confidence among businessmen. Fortunately, the revolution in Iran allowed oil revenues to increase again and there was no need to apply the necessary adjustments. President Pérez had declared in 1977 that it was necessary to apply macroeconomic adjustments, but the measures were not taken because the situation was postponed and a new increase in oil prices allowed the national economy to keep pace.

End of his first government and new presidency

Because the constitution prevented immediate reelection (he would have to wait five years after the end of his presidential term), Pérez maintained popularity until the end of his presidential term, but the weakness of the pro-government candidate Luis Piñerúa Ordaz and the stagnation of the economy after 1977 led to his party, Acción Democrática, being defeated in the December 1978 elections, which gave way to the presidency of Venezuela for Luis Herrera Campíns of the social-Christian party COPEI, who succeeded him in the title.^{[citation required]}

At the end of his first term, Pérez was accused of corruption in the Congress of the Republic for the Sierra Nevada Case, where by the margin of one vote (that of deputy José Vicente Rangel who later became Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defense and Vice President of Hugo Chávez in his first presidency), he was acquitted of being politically condemned for such an act.

In the AD (Democratic Action) he regained power in the December 1983 elections, supporting Dr. Jaime Lusinchi for the presidency of the Republic. In 1988 and against Lusinchi's criteria, after primary elections in which he defeated Octavio Lepage (later his temporary successor as president of the country in 1993 due to his status as president of congress), on October 11, 1988 he was elected new by his party as a candidate for the presidency.^{[citation needed]}

Second presidency (1989-1993)

Carlos Andrés Pérez, at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in 1989

Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez (right) with George H. W. Bush during a visit to Washington

Once again using an intense political campaign and with the slogan "el gocho" he was elected in the elections of December 4, 1988 with 3,879,024 votes (52.91% of the voters), until that date, the highest number of votes in absolute terms. The image of Pérez as the president of the "economic miracle" that had been created among the voters helped to give him the presidency again. However, the economic situation had gradually worsened as oil prices fell. The currency had been devalued, inflation was high, and the foreign debt was a heavy burden on the republic.

Despite the fact that the adjustment measures could not be fully applied, the poverty indices dropped drastically at the end of his government (from 70% to just over 30%). On the foreign front, in his second During his stay in power, Pérez maintained an intense relationship with other heads of government such as the Spanish Felipe González and the German Helmut Kohl.

Economy

Privatizations

In his second constitutional government, strong macroeconomic adjustment measures were undertaken. At that time, it was considered necessary to update the Venezuelan mixed economy model and liberalize the model. The actions undertaken by the administration of President Pérez aim to dismantle the action followed up to now. For the Venezuelan State, it was not possible to guarantee the sustained growth of public companies, since it had sufficient resources. The production costs of public companies were higher than those of private companies.

The administration of Carlos Andrés Pérez decided to implement a process of privatization at all costs of public companies that produce goods and services, arguing their inefficiency and low profitability. The philosophy behind this change was that the private sector often manages economic resources more efficiently. It was decided to redefine the orientation of the State, which would now take care of those public companies that gave losses. Those that were still competitive would remain under state control, such as certain hotels in the city. The Venezuelan government, using the state structure, made the decision to transfer to the private sector the ownership or management of public companies in various areas of the economy and to improve the results of the companies that remain in the hands of the State in order to free resources to dedicate them to social spending in the country.

Economic indicators

In the second government of Carlos Andrés Pérez (1989-1993), the economy registered an average annual growth rate of GDP per capita of 0.42%. Although the misery index in the first year of the second Pérez government reached 71.13%, the indicator fell to 38.92% for the last year of the Pérez government. The reduction was 32.21%, even though the economic adjustment plan could not be fully applied due to the events of the Caracazo. In fact, some of the measures that managed to be applied would be reversed in the constitutional period of Rafael Caldera.

During this administration, the average unemployment and inflation rates were 8.82% and 44.6%, respectively. This improvement in the index was the result of a significant decrease in both unemployment and inflation. This allowed Venezuela to lower the misery index by more than 30% in a few years. The average of this indicator for this government period was 53.42%, one of the highest in the XX century.

Economic policy

Following the negative economic situation in Venezuela, the constitutional government during its first months of government presents a macroeconomic adjustment program to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to restructure the debt and improve the reductions of the International Reserve, which included a monetary program, the liberalization of interest rates, the liberalization of key variables such as the exchange rate, the interest rate, prices and financial liberalization, among other things. The Venezuelan government communicates to the IMF that it expects to have a significant amount of support from the international financial community, including the designated agreement for the expanded financing facility, loans from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The IMF set the international reserve rates that the Venezuelan government had to maintain.

To set a limit to the Venezuelan monetary expansion, the IMF determined the amount of money that the Central Bank of Venezuela could create, through the estimation of international reserves and internal assets. Together with the estimate of the magnitude of the monetary multiplier, the BCV had room for maneuver to decide the amount of the monetary supply. One of the most relevant aspects of the macroeconomic adjustment program refers to the liberalization of prices, understood in the broad sense of the word, that is, with respect to the exchange rate, interest rates and goods and services..

The initial situation did not give Pérez much leeway. He announced an austerity plan consisting of the liberalization of imports, the elimination of price controls, the privatization of non-strategic companies in the hands of the state, such as the Compañía Anónima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), an increase in the price of gasoline, freezing wages, reducing the size of the State, as well as public spending. The highlights of the program can be summarized as follows:^{[citation required]}

• Request for funding to the International Monetary Fund by applying for an adjustment programme.
• Release of active and passive interest rates.
• Unification of the exchange rate, eliminating the preferential rate and therefore the criticized Office of the Dispute Change Regime (RECADI).
• Free the prices of all products except those of the "basic basket".
• Increase in public service fees.
• Increase in the price of gasoline and other petroleum products in the national market, for three years, with a first increase of 100% (five cents of dollars) in the price of gasoline and 30% in the amount of transportation.
• Increase in civil service salaries between 5 and 30 per cent, the minimum wage to Bs. 4000 in the city and Bs. 2500 in the field.
• Freezing the civil service charges.
• Rationalization and elimination of import tariffs.
• Reduction of the fiscal deficit to less than 4%.

Big Face

On February 27, 1989, a series of protests arose, carried out by those who lived in the dormitory cities of Caracas who had to commute daily to work in this capital, the increase in the price of gasoline as part of the adjustment in the economy Announced on February 16, cataloged by the intellectual Arturo Uslar Pietri, in El Nacional, as "necessary, coherent and realistic" that affected the increase in the price of public transport tickets. In a short time, the movement that began in the avenues and stops of Guarenas (a population located about 40 km east of the capital) quickly spread to Caracas itself, other cities and regions: La Guaira, Valencia, Barquisimeto, Mérida, Guayana and Valles del Tuy, becoming groups of violence that looted supermarkets, shopping centers and establishments of all kinds.

Faced with this situation, and the inability of the local police to control the looting, the Pérez government used the Army as a means of containing the violent acts that occurred throughout the city (a riot control strategy known as Plan Ávila was activated).. This measure had a high cost, since the Armed Forces incurred in excessive repression that, according to official figures, left 276 dead and numerous injured. of Human Rights Cofavic the official number of victims does not correspond to reality, and cites the appearance of mass graves such as La Peste, where according to this N.O.G. 68 unidentified bodies appeared, "off the official list". Organizations not belonging to the Armed Forces. such as the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (Disip), the Metropolitan Police and the PTJ Judicial Police, committed police abuses.

Photographed in June 1989 in El Pardo together with Felipe González

There were approximately 2,000 people disappeared on February 27 and 28, 1989. For this reason, in the days and months after the Caracazo there were a large number of demonstrations against it, which together with the political criticisms formulated by various parties and sectors, to him and his program, weakened the political ground on which it was sustained.

During the crisis caused by the first Gulf War, Venezuela increased its production of crude oil, which brought momentary relief to the economic situation, although it did not reduce social conflict.

Coup attempts

In the early morning of Tuesday, February 4, 1992, there was an attempted coup led by several middle officers of the Armed Forces, among whom was Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez. All this due to the deterioration of the social situation and the increase in administrative corruption. After a few hours of uncertainty, Pérez managed to escape in a car assigned to President Jaime Lusinchi, which was being repaired in the Miraflores Palace garage, going to a Venevisión television plant, where he regained control. After the uprising was defeated by the president's forces and its leaders were imprisoned, Carlos Andrés Pérez promised before public opinion to correct some aspects of his measures; but the process of deterioration would not stop.

Pérez had to face a second coup attempt on Friday, November 27 of the same year; during which the coup leaders came to take over the facilities of the state television channel Venezolana de Televisión, bombing some public buildings, such as the Miraflores Palace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the La Carlota airport. The attempt was defeated but once again it contributed to improving the already discredited image of the president.

Removal and trial

In March 1993, the attorney general, Ramón Escovar Salom, filed a request for preliminary trial of the merits against him for the crime of "intentional embezzlement" and "embezzlement" of 250 million bolivars (17 million dollars at that time) of the secret item for whose management he was responsible. On May 20, 1993, the presentation requested by the Supreme Court of Justice to the president magistrate Gonzalo Rodríguez Corro was known, declaring the request for preliminary trial of merit admissible. The following day, on May 21, the National Congress authorized the trial, removing Carlos Andrés from the position of the presidency. During the process it was revealed that said money had been used for international aid to President Violeta Chamorro in Nicaragua.

The trial had various irregularities. The legal representatives pointed out that this trial had an irrefutable political character. decisions were issued under pressure and fundamental guarantees in the rule of law were ignored. In the trial the rights enshrined in articles 361, 367 and 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were not respected and the Court rejected the defense request, despite what has been stated. According to Nikola Kedzo:

(...) it can be said that Congress interpreted the articles of the Constitution in isolation depending on the circumstances it considered appropriate. The inadequate interpretation of the constitutional regulations led to the transformation of the Senate suspension into a temporary fault that would lead to absolute failure, which could never have been such without the existence of a final judgment in the trial that caused the suspension. In this regard, the action of amparo and nullity was introduced on the basis of the violation of article 119 of the Constitution, which states that "All usurped authority is ineffective, and its acts are null and void." In declaring President Pérez ' s absolute fault, a transgression of the President ' s powers would be generated and that action would therefore be invalidated. "In other words, the Constitutional President of the Republic has been tried and convicted by an organ of the Public Power to which he is not entitled, at all, to such a function and which does not constitute his natural court." (Arteaga Sánchez et al., 1994, p. 68).

Nikola Kedzo

According to various political scientists and lawyers, due process was not respected and Carlos Andrés Pérez was tried without an opportunity to defend himself. The brief presented by the defense, where the double action of the prosecutor as accuser and party "in good faith in the trial" against the president is challenged, is based on the fact that the attorney general appeared as a formal accuser against President Pérez and also, acted in the same trial as a "guarantor of good faith" by the Public Ministry; action absolutely refutable, since he has access to the procedural records and in the intervention on summary proceedings, to which the defense cannot access.

The nature of this item prevents, by legal imperative, the existence of receipts for these expenses, and also prevents information from being obtained by the officials who have managed said funds. Therefore, they have the obligation to keep the secret about their use or destination since, otherwise, they would be responsible for the crime of revealing political or military secrets; a crime sanctioned in the Penal Code was committed by divulging strictly confidential and secret information, since it involved expenses for the defense and security of the Venezuelan State.

Later trajectory

Once removed from the presidency, Pérez was confined in the El Junquito Judicial Checkpoint and from there, in application of the legal provisions regarding age limits for imprisonment, he was placed under house arrest in his Quinta La Ahumada, where he was detained pending the ruling on the case. On May 30, 1996, the Supreme Court of Justice sentenced him for "aggravated generic embezzlement" to two years and four months of house arrest. During this period, the poet Caupolicán Ovalles did a series of interviews with the former president that were compiled in the book entitled You owe me that jail, Conversations in La Ahumada (1996).

In 1999, once Pérez was released, he created a new party: Movimiento de Apertura y Participación Nacional, made up of independents and AD dissidents, but with the aim of obtaining a senator seat and perhaps shielding himself through parliamentary immunity of the new accusations of corruption that had appeared (existence of secret accounts in the United States). Despite the fact that he obtained said seat, the suspension of the legislative chambers and subsequent dissolution of the Congress of the Republic, due to the constituent process launched by the new president Hugo Chávez, forced him to run again for the elections to the National Constituent Assembly., but this time he was not elected, despite having obtained a large vote in his home state, Táchira.^{[citation required]}

On December 20, 2001, a court of first instance in Caracas ordered that Pérez, then in the Dominican Republic, be detained at his home on a preventive basis in connection with public funds diverted to secret accounts.

Funeral by Carlos Andrés Pérez at the House of Democratic Action in El Paraíso. Caracas, October 5, 2011.

On April 3, the Venezuelan government's foreign ministry sent the official request for the ex-president's extradition to the Dominican Republic. Said extradition never took place. Until his death, he lived in exile in the city of Miami (United States) from where he criticized the policies of the then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez. On October 28, 2003, he suffered a partially disabled stroke.

Death

On Saturday, December 25, 2010, Carlos Andrés Pérez died of respiratory failure at the Mercy Hospital in the city of Miami, at the age of 88, where he had been since the same year.

The family of the former president (Pérez Matos) announced that the funeral service would take place on December 29 at the Our Lady of Mercy cemetery, south of the city of Miami. Due to a lawsuit filed by the Pérez Rodríguez family (Blanca Rodríguez de Pérez, the ex-president's legitimate wife), the ex-president's burial was suspended, by order of Miami-Dade Judge Gerald Hubbart. A trial was scheduled by August 2011 to determine where the remains of the deceased would rest. Finally an agreement was reached. On October 4, 2011, the remains of Carlos Andrés Pérez were returned to Venezuela, nine months after his death. The coffin arrived on a flight that originated from Atlanta, Georgia, escorted by Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma, a friend of Pérez and a member of the Acción Democrática (AD) party. Once in Caracas, the remains were transferred to the Eastern cemetery.

Predecessor: Rafael Caldera	President of the Republic of Venezuela 12 March 1974 – 12 March 1979	Successor: Luis Herrera Campíns
Predecessor: Jaime Lusinchi	President of the Republic of Venezuela 2 February 1989 - 21 May 1993	Successor: Octavio Lepage