Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo

Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo (Caracas, Venezuela, December 13, 1903 – Georgetown University Hospital, Washington D.C., United States, September 3, 1979) was a lawyer, politician, Venezuelan diplomat and university professor. He is popularly known as "the father of OPEC", "the forgotten prophet" or "the guerrilla gentleman". According to Miguel Jaimes, a specialist in oil matters, Pérez Alfonzo's legacy was to guarantee autonomy and leadership of the oil countries over their industries against the interests of foreign companies.

According to journalist William D. Smith, Pérez Alfonzo considered himself a "Provenezolan" who "seeked justice" for Venezuela "with respect to oil revenues" and who wanted to preserve that "heritage for future generations." »; However, in 1975, disenchanted with the progress of Venezuelan oil policy, he stated that "oil is the devil's excrement" due to the waste and inefficient administration of oil revenues at that time, contrary to his vision of austere and rational use. of the income from this resource and its call for economic diversification.

Biography

Early years

His parents were Juan Pablo Pérez Betancourt and Carmen Alfonzo de la Torre. His first studies were carried out under the tutelage of French priests in the city of Caracas and then he entered secondary studies at the Liceo San José, where he graduated at the age of 18 with a bachelor's degree in physical and mathematical sciences.

In 1922, he traveled to the city of Baltimore (United States) to study medicine at Johns Hopkins University, but he could not start immediately because he needed to improve his English. He dedicated himself to studying the language, but due to the economic difficulties that his family was experiencing at the time, he returned to Caracas in 1923.

In this same year he began to study Law at the Central University of Venezuela, shortly after he managed to get a job as an assistant in the law firm of Carlos Sequera, one of the best in Caracas at that time. He finishes his studies in Law and obtains the title of Doctor in Political and Social Sciences at the Central University of Venezuela, presenting his degree thesis with the title "The legitimate defense of patrimonial rights." He practiced law for several years, specializing in Civil Law.

Professional life

He was a professor of Civil Law at the Central University of Venezuela.

He participated in the founding of the Democratic Action political party in 1941. During the first government of this party (1945-1948) he was Minister of Development of the Revolutionary Government Junta chaired by Rómulo Betancourt, when oil activities were controlled by said Ministry, proposes the fifty-fifty (50-50) thesis, according to which the State's participation in the profits of oil companies cannot be less than 50%. The Executive also signed the agreements to build refineries in Amuay, Cardón, Bajo Grande, Puerto La Cruz and El Chaure.

During the brief government of Rómulo Gallegos that had confirmed him in office, Pérez Alfonzo managed to establish the fifty-fifty tax rate established on November 12, 1948 and initiated activities aimed at creating a organization of the most important oil-producing countries in order to defend their interests in a non-renewable natural resource within the framework of a world market dominated by a cartel of transnational companies that would later be called the Seven Sisters.

When President Gallegos was overthrown in November 1948, Pérez Alfonzo was imprisoned for nine months and then exiled to the United States in 1949. In Washington D.C. he intensely studied the regulatory strategies developed by the Crude Oil and Gas Division. Gas from the Texas Railway Commission (TRC) to counteract the monopolies exercised by great magnates such as Rockfeller and Brickell. Furthermore, he came to feel great admiration for Mr. Clarence G. Gilmore, veteran Chief Commissioner of the TRC who was in favor of a joint administration of the natural resource - between producers and the government agency he directed - to rationalize costs and profits and conserve crude oil reserves.

In 1958 he returned from his exile in Mexico to provide public service as Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Venezuela during the government chaired by Rómulo Betancourt (1959-1964) with the purpose of establishing his oil policy of the so-called Pentagon of Directed Action to greater participation of the State in the hydrocarbon industry and conclude the creation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). At the beginning of 1960, Pérez Alfonso attended the First Arab Petroleum Congress in Cairo, leading the Venezuelan delegation, where he met with the future Minister of Oil of Saudi Arabia Abdullah al Tariki, to whom he entrusted his proposal, with the advice of two former TRC officials, to form an oil cartel with a system of production quotas that would stabilize prices through the volume of supply and thus avoid the economic waste of a resource that is depleted without the possibility of renewal. The proposal was accepted without reservation by the producing countries of the Persian Gulf and in August of that same year, OPEC was founded in Baghdad with five member countries: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and Venezuela. In the same year, at the initiative his, the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation (CVP) was created.

Pérez Alfonzo presented the letter of resignation as Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, when Betancourt rejected his proposal for the "Pentagon of Action", specifically on the point of "No more concessions to transnational companies." Betancourt did not accept it. Pérez Alfonzo retires from the government and withdraws from political activity. The link between President Betancourt and Minister Pérez Alfonzo was the Vice Minister of Petroleum, who sent any document to Dr. Pérez Alfonzo for him to sign. Because of his efforts inside and outside Venezuela, some have called him the "Guerrilla Knight." He resigned from OPEC because he lost faith in it, believing that it would dedicate itself to developing poor countries with fair oil trade, on the contrary, OPEC dedicated itself to trading with developed countries that could pay the price that the organization would impose.

Subsequent trajectory

It maintained its public activity until 1964 and later the government of Raúl Leoni used its proposal for the "Pentagon of Action" to promote favorable changes within the hydrocarbon industry. Among them, greater influence of the Venezuelan State over oil matters, the non-granting of more concessions to transnational companies exploiting crude oil and the strengthening of OPEC, as well as the CVP.

During the last years of his life, from his home in Los Chorros, he dedicated himself to the study of problems that he considered more important than oil, such as the education and health of children, demographic growth in underdeveloped countries, corruption of securities caused by the excess of oil currencies in the country, etc. He could never stop worrying about the country's problems, he died at the age of 76, due to pancreatic cancer, in the city of Washington D.C., United States, on September 3, 1979. The international airport of The city of El Vigía, Mérida state, was named in honor of Pérez Alfonzo.

Action Pentagon

The Pentagon of Action was a plan proposed by Pérez Alfonzo to change the fundamental structure of the oil policy imposed in Venezuela starting in 1953. The five points or sides that made up the Pentagon of Action were:

1. Reasonable participation: it was intended to involve the State more adapted to economic and political reality in the national and international context, which, at the percentage level, should be 65 per cent of the State and 35 per cent of the concessionaires who continued to serve.
2. Creation of a Coordinating Commission for the Conservation and Trade of Hydrocarbons: its role, among others, was to deepen in studies of the state of the oil industry, to coordinate among relevant bodies.
3. Corporación Venezolana de Petróleo: his creation was to allow the State to take its first steps in the operation of oil activities.
4. No more concessions: almost absolute willingness on the part of the State not to grant new concessions, nor to renew existing ones, in spite of the progressive growth of the State in the operation of oil activities with a view to nationalizing the industry in the short term.
5. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries: it was the paramount point at the international level, which would allow greater profits and strength of Venezuelan oil on the international market, with the union of other exporting countries, in contrast to the prices and conditions policies established by transnational corporations. It recalls the economic, political, of the so-called "Seven Sisters" in the international market, and that only with the grouping and joint action of the Exporting Countries could be diminished.

Work

• Oil: earth juice. Caracas: Editorial Arte, 1961.
• Oil Dynamics in Venezuela's Progress. Caracas: Central University of Venezuela, 1965.
• Oil of life or death (debate with Arturo Uslar Pietri). Caracas: Editorial Arte, 1966.
• The Petroleum Pentagon: the Nationalist Policy for the Defense and Conservation of Oil. Caracas: Revista Política, 1967.
• How long are the abuses of Electricity?: report on the case Guarenas. Guarenas: City Council, 1969.
• Oil and dependence. Caracas: Synthesis Dos Mil, 1971.
• Singing in the devil's excrement. Caracas: Editorial Lisbona, 1976.
• The disaster (together with Domingo Alberto Rangel and Pedro Duno). Valencia: Vadell Hermanos, 1976.
• Alternatives (with Ivan Loscher). Caracas: Garbizu & Todtmann Publishers, 1976.
• Venezuela and oil. Caracas: Editorial Centro Gumilla, 1976.