Rafael Caldera
Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez (born January 24, 1916 in San Felipe, Yaracuy , Venezuela , † December 24, 2009 in Caracas ) was a Venezuelan politician and was President of the country between 1969 and 1973 and 1994 and 1998. He was a founding member of COPEI , Venezuela's Christian Democratic Party . Caldera was instrumental in Venezuelan politics in the second half of the 20th century.
The early years
Caldera came from a middle-class household and studied law in Caracas . At the age of 20 he founded the student movement UNE, which rebelled against the dictatorship of the then head of state Eleazar López Contreras . Caldera was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1941 and campaigned for workers' rights during this time.
The introduction of democracy in Venezuela
1943 Caldera resigned from his political office and received a chair at the Institute of Law at the University of Caracas. In 1946, however, he returned to politics and was elected as a member of a commission to draft a new constitution. Caldera was instrumental in drafting laws on workers' rights and the protection of human life. This new constitution, adopted in 1947, was considered one of the most progressive in Latin America at the time.
In the 1947 presidential election, Caldera first ran as a candidate for head of state, but lost. On October 14, 1947, Caldera and some other politicians founded the COPEI (Comité de Organización Política Electoral Independiente), the Christian-Democratic Party of Venezuela, and became its first chairman. In the same year he was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies.
In 1948, a military junta under Marcos Pérez Jiménez came to power in a coup . The entire COPEI faction then withdrew from parliament because they did not want to cooperate with the putschists. Although elections were held in 1951, the result was annulled because the ruling military junta failed to achieve a majority. During protests that followed, Caldera was arrested and imprisoned for several months.
In 1958 the dictatorship of Pérez Jiménez came to an end and on October 31st three of the country's major parties ( AD , COPEI and URD) met to conclude a pact to defend and uphold the Basic Law. This was supposed to prevent a new dictatorship and also stipulated that the future government should be a government of national unity based on the lowest common denominator. This " Pact of Punto Fijo ", named after Caldera's residence of the same name, formed the basis for the power-sharing of the two major popular parties, COPEI and AD from 1958 to 1993.
In the subsequent elections in 1959 Caldera ran as a presidential candidate, but lost to Rómulo Betancourt of the social democratic AD. In 1963 Caldera lost again to the AD, this time against Raúl Leoni .
Caldera's first term (1969–1973)
In 1969 Caldera was elected head of state, although COPEI did not have a majority in parliament. However, Caldera managed to form a stable government. He had a general amnesty for the guerrilla fighters who were still numerous . Another focus of his tenure was the dissolution of the so-called Betancourt Doctrine, which did not allow Venezuela to establish diplomatic relations with countries whose leaders did not come to power through democratic means. During his tenure, Caldera established relationships with Argentina , Cuba , Panamá and the Soviet Union, among others . In 1970 he admitted the Communist Party, which had been banned until then . Another focus of his policy were reforms in the oil industry , the country's most important industry. Since the Venezuelan constitution at that time did not allow re-election of the president, Caldera could not run again in 1973. His successor was Carlos Andrés Pérez of the AD.
1973-1993
Caldera remained active in Venezuelan politics for almost twenty years, but without holding a high office in the state. 1979 to 1982 he was chairman of the Interparliamentary Union . In 1983 he failed for the fifth time when trying to be elected president, this time against Jaime Lusinchi of the AD. In 1987 he even lost the presidential nomination within his party.
Carlos Andrés Pérez's second term (1988-1993) was characterized by neoliberal elements and on February 27, 1989 led to an uprising known as Caracazo in the capital Caracas. Pérez failed to calm the political mood, and his neo-liberal course was also unable to slow the downward spiral of the economy. There were several coup attempts in 1992 and 1993, including one led by later President Hugo Chávez . On May 21, 1993, Pérez was deposed after serious suspicion of corruption , a transition period began under Ramón José Velásquez .
Caldera's second term (1994–1998)
In the same year Caldera resigned from COPEI and founded the CD - Convergencia Democrática, a center-left alliance of smaller parties, including the communist PCV party . In 1994 he won the presidential elections with this alliance and took over the office from his great rival Carlos Andrés Pérez , who inherited him in 1973. Caldera managed to stabilize the political situation, but it required drastic measures. This included state intervention in private banks and a suspension of foreign exchange exports. This caused the confidence of foreign investors to fall and at times brought about a major, hardly expected economic downturn. Caldera, who did not want to cooperate with the International Monetary Fund for a long time, accepted the help of the IMF , with which he succeeded in stabilizing the economic situation. However, the IMF again called for a reorientation towards neo-liberal policies, which Caldera was reluctant to accept.
This Caldera second term had both negative and positive aspects. He managed to put an end to the uprisings that had flared up towards the end of Pérez's term of office and to keep the country's economy and social systems at a stable level towards the end of his own term of office. The economic turmoil towards the middle of his term in office contributed to the bankruptcy of over 70,000 small and medium-sized companies and impoverished a large part of the population.
For reasons of age, the 82-year-old Caldera did not run for the presidential election on December 6, 1998. He was succeeded by Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), who was arrested after a coup attempt (February 4, 1992) against Pérez and was released from prison in 1994 by Caldera.
Rafael Caldera wrote numerous books and received the "Path to Peace" award in 1998 for his life's work. He was married to Alicia Pietri (October 14, 1923 to February 9, 2011) and had six children. His son Juan José Caldera (* 1948) was governor of the state of Yaracuy from March 1979 to October 1982 and from January 1983 to January 1989 a member of parliament ('Senador al Congreso de la República').
Honors
- 1995: Collane of the Papal Order of Pius
See also
Web links
- Literature by and about Rafael Caldera in the catalog of the German National Library
- Rafael Caldera - Official Biography (Spanish).
- Biography and speeches (spanish)
- Graphic at the CIDOB Foundation (Spanish)
- Rafael Caldera - in the Daily Telegraph
Individual evidence
Cipriano Castro | Juan Vicente Gómez | Eleazar López Contreras | Isaías Medina Angarita | Rómulo Betancourt | Rómulo Gallegos | Carlos Delgado Chalbaud | Germán Suárez Flamerich | Marcos Pérez Jiménez | Wolfgang Larrazábal | Edgar Sanabria | Rómulo Betancourt | Raúl Leoni | Rafael Caldera | Carlos Andrés Pérez | Luís Herrera Campíns | Jaime Lusinchi | Carlos Andrés Pérez | Ramón José Velásquez | Rafael Caldera | Hugo Chavez Frías | Nicolás Maduro Moros | Juan Gerardo Guaidó Márquez (controversial)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Caldera, Rafael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Caldera Rodríguez, Rafael Antonio (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Venezuelan politician and president |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 24, 1916 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Felipe, Yaracuy , Venezuela |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 24, 2009 |
| Place of death | Caracas |