Andrés Pérez

Muere a los 88 años, expresidente Carlos Andrés Pérez

María Francia Pérez, hija de Carlos Andrés Pérez, informó que el expresidente falleció a las 2:42 de la tarde hora de Miami, en el Mercy Hospital de esa ciudad a consecuencia de un ataque cardíaco. 

María Francia aseguró que su padre "hasta el último momento mantuvo inquietudes sobre su país, la situación y del rumbo que está tomando Venezuela".

Con respecto al acto velatorio, indicó que la información será suministrada el próximo domingo.

"Fue algo de repente, se despertó con un muy buen ánimo este 25. Estuvo muy elocuente, conversó con nosotros. Más tarde se le comenzó a ir el aire y de un momento para otro falleció", declaró.

En octubre de 2003, el expresidente sufrió un accidente cerebrovascular que lo dejó parcialmente incapacitado.

El socialdemócrata Pérez fue presidente entre 1974-1979 y 1989-1993. Durante su segundo mandato, fue condenado por malversación y tuvo que abandonar la presidencia antes de culminar el período de gobierno. En 1999 dejó Venezuela.

En su segundo gobierno, además, enfrentó dos golpes de Estado. El primero fue el 4 de febrero de 1992 liderado por el entonces desconocido militar y actual presidente Hugo Chávez.

El segundo -el 27 de noviembre de 1992- fue encabezado por generales y almirantes, también derrotados por tropas leales a Pérez.

Acérrimo opositor del presidente Chávez, Pérez había manifestado hace tiempo su intención de pasar sus últimos días en Venezuela.

Mas Temprano

Cerca de las seis de la tarde, el alcalde metropolitano de Caracas, Antonio Ledezma, confirmó la muerte del expresidente de Venezuela, Carlos Andrés Pérez. El alcalde aseguró que la información fue confirmada por sus  familiares quienes informaron que el expresidente falleció a consecuencia de un paro cardíaco.

Morre em Miami ex-presidente da Venezuela Carlos Andrés Pérez

Faleceu neste sábado (25/12) em Miami, Estados Unidos, após um ataque cardíaco o ex-presidente venezuelano Carlos Andrés Pérez, que ocupou  o poder entre 1974 e 1979 e depois de 1989 a 1993. A notícia foi dada pelo ex-governador de Caracas, Diego Arria, aliado do ex-governante, por meio de sua conta pessoal no Twitter. 

"O ex-presidente da Venezuela Carlos Andrés Pérez faleceu esta tarde em Miami. Comparecerei a seu funeral meu grande amigo", escreveu Arria. 

Nascido em Rubio, estado Táchira, em 27 de outubro de 1922, Pérez era procurado pela justiça venezuelana pelo episódio do "Caracazo", revolta popular que aconteceu em fevereiro de 1989. Poucos dias depois de assumiu o poder para o segundo mandato e anunciar um pacote de medidas econômicas que incluía um aumento dos preços dos transportes públicos e da gasolina, milhares de pessoas saíram às ruas protestar, e foram violetamente reprimidas pelas forças policiais. 

Nunca se soube o número exato de mortos. O balanço oficial aponta para 300, enquanto organismos humanitários elevam esse número para mais de mil. Em setembro de 2009 o Ministério Público da Venezuela pediu à Interpol (polícia internacional) que capturasse o ex-presidente, mas Pérez permaneceu fora do país. 

No aniversário de 21 anos do massacre o presidente venezuelano, Hugo Chávez, pediu o julgamento de Pérez e dos envolvidos. "O principal responsável [pelo Caracaz] se chama Carlos Andrés Pérez e aqueles com quem ele governava, que mandaram matar o povo desarmado", afirmou. 

Em seu primeiro mandato como presidente, Pérez nacionalizou a indústria do ferro e do petróleo. Já no segundo governo realizou um governo de corte neoliberal, mas as denúncias e escândalos de corrupção prosseguiram. Em 1992, foi alvo de duas tentativas de golpe de estado, protagonizadas por Chávez. Em 1993 sofreu um impeachment, sendo o primeiro e único presidente da história da Venezuela a ser impedido de exercer suas funções. 

Em 1997, Pérez rompeu com seu velho partido, a Ação Democrática e fundou sua própria agremiação política, pela qual elegeu-se senador no final da década de 1990.

Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (October 27, 1922 - December 25, 2010), best known as CAP and often referred to as "El Gocho" (Due to his Andean origins), was a former Venezuelan politician , who was President of Venezuela from 1974 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1993. His first presidency was well-known as the Saudi Venezuela due to its economic and social prosperity thanks to enormous income from petroleum exportation. However, his second period saw a continuation of the economic crisis of the 1980s, and saw a series of social crises, a popular revolt (denominated Caracazo) and two coup attempts in 1992. In May 1993 he became the first Venezuelan president to be forced out of the office by the Supreme Court, for the misappropriation of 250 million bolívars belonging to a presidential discretionary fund. After more than two years of house arrest, Pérez was released in September 1996.

Early life and education
Carlos Andrés Pérez was born at the hacienda La Argentina, on the Venezuelan-Colombian border, near the town of Rubio, Táchira state, the eleventh of twelve children in a middle-class family. His father, Antonio Pérez Lemus, was a Colombian-born coffee planter and pharmacist of Spanish and Canary Islander ancestry who emigrated to Venezuela during the last years of the 19th century. His mother, Julia Rodríguez, was the daughter of a prominent landowner in the town of Rubio and the granddaughter of Venezuelan refugees who had fled to the Andes and Colombia in the wake of the civil war that ravaged Venezuela in the 1860s.
Pérez was educated at the María Inmaculada School in Rubio, run by Dominican friars. His childhood was spent between the family home in town, a rambling Spanish colonial-style house, and the coffee haciendas owned by his father and maternal grandfather. Influenced by his grandfather, an avid book collector, Perez read voraciously from an early age, including French and Spanish classics by Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas. As he grew older, Pérez also became politically aware and managed to read Voltaire, Rousseau and Marx without the knowledge of his deeply conservative parents.
The combination of falling coffee prices, business disputes and harassment orchestrated by henchmen allied to dictator Juan Vicente Gomez, led to the financial ruin and physical deterioration of Antonio Pérez, who died of a heart attack in 1936. This episode would force the widow Julia and her sons to move to Venezuela's capital, Caracas, in 1939, where two of Pérez's eldest brothers had gone to attend university. The death of his father had a profound impact on the young Pérez, bolstering his convictions that democratic freedoms and rights were the only guarantees against the arbitrary, and tyrannical, use of state power.
In Caracas, Perez enrolled in the renowned Liceo Andrés Bello, where he graduated in 1944 with a major in Philosophy. In 1944, he enrolled in the Law School of the Central University of Venezuela. However, the intensification of his political activism would prevent Pérez from ever completing his law degree.


Political life
The political life of Carlos Andrés Pérez began at the age of 15, when he became a founding member of the Venezuelan Youth Association and a member of the National Democratic Party, both of which were opposed to the repressive administration of General Eleazar López Contreras, who had succeeded the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez in 1935. He also co-operated with the first labour unions in his region. When he moved to Caracas, in 1939 , he started an ascendant political career as a youth leader and founder of the Democratic Action (AD) party, in which he would play an important role during the 20th century, first as a close ally to party founder Rómulo Betancourt and then as a political leader in his own right.
In October 1945, a group of civilians and young army officers plotted the overthrow of the government run by General Isaías Medina Angarita. At the age of 23, Pérez was appointed Private Secretary to the Junta President, Romulo Betancourt, and became Cabinet Secretary in 1946. However, in 1948, when the military staged a coup against the democratically elected government of Rómulo Gallegos, Pérez was forced to go into exile (going to Cuba, Panama and Costa Rica) for a decade. He temporarily returned to Venezuela secretly in 1952 to complete special missions in his fight against the new dictatorial government. He was imprisoned on various occasions and spent more than two years in jail in total. In Costa Rica, he was active in Venezuelan political refugee circles, worked as Editor in Chief of the newspaper La República and kept in close contact with Betancourt and other AD leaders.
In 1958, after the fall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Pérez returned to Venezuela and participated in the reorganization of the AD Party. He served as Minister of Interior and Justice from 1959 to 1964 and made his mark as a tough minister and canny politician who successfully neutralized small, disruptive and radical right-wing and left-wing insurrections, the latter Cuban-influenced and Cuban-financed, that were being staged around the country. This was an important step in the pacification of the country in the mid to late 1960s, the consolidation of democracy and the integration of radical parties into the political process.
After the end of the Betancourt administration and the 1963 elections, Pérez left government temporarily and dedicated himself to consolidating his support in the party. During this time, he served as head of the AD in Congress and was elected to the position of Secretary General of AD, a role that was crucial in laying the ground for his presidential ambitions.


First term as president
In 1973, Carlos Andrés Pérez was nominated to run for the presidency for AD. Youthful and energetic, Perez ran a vibrant and triumphalist campaign, one of the first to use the services of American advertising gurus and political consultants in the country’s history. During the run up to elections, he visited nearly all the villages and cities of Venezuela by foot and walked more than 5800 kilometers. He was elected in December of that year, receiving 48.7% of the vote against the 36.7% of his main rival. Turnout in these elections reached an unprecedented 97% of all eligible voters, a level which has not been achieved since.
One of the most radical aspects of Pérez's program for government was the notion that petroleum oil was a tool for under-developed nations like Venezuela to attain first world status and usher a fairer, more equitable international order. International events, including the Yom Kippur War of 1973, contributed to the implementation of this vision. Drastic increases in petroleum prices that led to an economic bonanza for the country just as Pérez started his term. His policies, including the nationalization of the iron and petroleum industries, investment in large state-owned industrial projects for the production of aluminium and hydroelectric energy, infrastructure improvements and the funding of social welfare and scholarship programmes, were extremely ambitious and involved massive government spending, to the tune of almost $53 billion. His measures to protect the environment and foster sustainable development earned the Earth Care award in 1975, the first time a Latin American leader had received this recognition.
In the international arena, Perez supported democratic and progressive causes in Latin America and the world. He opposed the Somoza and Pinochet dictatorships and played a crucial role in the finalizing of the agreement for the transfer of the Panama Canal from American to Panamanian control. In 1975, with Mexican President Luis Echeverria, he found SELA, the Latin American Economic System, created to foster economic cooperation and scientific exchange between the nations of Latin America. He also supported the democratization process in Spain, as he brought Felipe González, who was living in exile, back to Spain in a private flight and thus strengthened the PSOE.
Towards the end of his first term in office, Pérez's reputation was tarnished by accusations of excessive, and disorderly, government spending. His administration was often referred to as Saudi Venezuela for its grandiose and extravagant ambitions. In addition, there were allegations of corruption and trafficking of influence, often involving members of Pérez's intimate circle, such as his mistress Cecilia Matos, or financiers and businessmen who donated to his campaign. A well-publicized rift with his former mentor Betancourt and disgruntled members of AD all pointed to the fading of Perez’s political standing. By the 1978 elections, there was a sense among many citizens that the influx of petrodollars after 1973 had not been properly managed. The country was importing 80% of all foodstuffs consumed. Agricultural production was stagnant. The national debt had skyrocketed. And whilst per capita income had increased and prosperity was evident in Caracas and other major cities, the country was also more expensive and a significant minority of Venezuelans were still mired in poverty. This malaise led to the defeat of AD at the polls by the opposition Social Christian Party. The newly elected president, Luis Herrera Campíns, famously stated in his inaugural speech that he was “inheriting a mortgaged country.”


After the first presidency
Carlos Andrés Pérez maintained a high profile in international affairs. In 1980, he was elected president of the Latin American Association of Human Rights. He collaborated with President Julius Nyerere in the organization of the South-South Commission. He actively participated in the Socialist International, where he served as Vice-President for three consecutive terms, under the presidency of Willy Brandt from West Germany. Willy Brandt and Carlos Andrés Pérez, together with José Francisco Peña Gómez, a political leader from the Dominican Republic, expanded the activities of the Socialist International from Europe to Latin America. In 1988, he became a Member of the Council of Freely-Elected Heads of Government, established by the former President of the United States, H.E. Jimmy Carter. He was elected Chairman of the Harvard University Conference on Foreign Debt in Latin America, in September 1989, and received the Henry and Nancy Bartels Award on World Affairs at Cornell University.


Second term as president
In February 1989, at the beginning of his second term as President, he accepted an International Monetary Fund proposal known as the Washington consensus. In return for accepting this proposal, the International Monetary Fund offered Venezuela a loan for 4.5 billion US dollars. This cooperation with the IMF came about weeks after his victory in the 1988 presidential election, and a populist, anti-neoliberal campaign during which he described the IMF as "a neutron bomb that killed people, but left buildings standing" and said that World Bank economists were "genocide workers in the pay of economic totalitarianism".[2] Poor economic conditions led to attempts to revolutionize the political and economic structure of Venezuela, but the implementation of the neoliberal reforms (and in particular the liberalisation of petrol prices, which caused an immediate increase in the cost of petrol to consumers and rises in fares on public transport[3]) resulted in massive popular protests in Caracas, the capital. Carlos Andrés Pérez crushed the protest with the national guard, causing a large number of deaths—estimates range from 500 to 3000, and resulted in the declaration of a state of emergency. The protest is now referred to as the Caracazo.
In 1992, his government survived two coup attempts. The first attempt took place 4 February 1992, and was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Chávez, who was later elected president. With the attempt having clearly failed, Chávez was catapulted into the national spotlight when he was allowed to appear live on national television to call for all remaining rebel detachments in Venezuela to cease hostilities. When he did so, Chávez famously quipped on national television that he had only failed "por ahora"—"for now". The second, and much bloodier, insurrection took place on 27 November 1992.


Impeachment
On 20 March 1993, Attorney General Ramón Escovar Salom, introduced action against Pérez for the misappropriation of 250 million bolivars belonging to a presidential discretionary fund, or partida secreta. The issue had originally been brought to public scrutiny in November 1992 by journalist José Vicente Rangel. Pérez and his supporters claim the money was used to support the electoral process in Nicaragua. On 20 May 1993, the Supreme Court considered the accusation valid, and the following day the Senate voted to strip Pérez of his immunity. Pérez refused to resign, but after the maximum 90 days temporary leave available to the President under Article 188 of the 1961 constitution, the National Congress removed Pérez from office permanently on 31 August.


After the second presidency
Pérez' trial concluded in May 1996, and he was sentenced to 28 months in prison.
In 1998, he was imprisoned again, this time for holding joint bank accounts with his mistress, Cecilia Matos. As he was elected Senator of the State of Táchira in 1998, he gained his liberty. Pérez lost this position when Chávez dissolved the Senate as an institution and created the National Assembly. He then left Venezuela and went into exile in Miami. He has since gained notoriety by being one of the most vehement opposers of President Hugo Chávez.


Personal life
At the age of 26 he married his first cousin Blanca Rodriguez with whom he had six children, Sonia, Thais, Martha, Carlos Manuel, Maria de Los Angeles and Maria Carolina. In the late 1960s, he began an extramarital relationship with his former secretary Cecilia Matos, giving his last name to Mato's daughters, María Francia and Cecilia Victoria Pérez. Although rumours have circulated that Pérez and Matos are now married, his divorce suit against Blanca Rodriguez has not been successful and the two are still legally married. He has been living in exile since 1998 with Matos, dividing his time between his homes in Miami, the Dominican Republic and New York. In 2003, he suffered a debilitating stroke that seriously affected his mental and physical abilities. On 31 March 2008, the secretary general of Acción Democrática Henry Ramos Allup, announced that Andrés Pérez wanted to return to Venezuela from exile, to spend his last years in Caracas.

He died in Miami, Florida, on December 25, 2010.