In this blog I’ve alluded to several monumental feats of engineering and construction such as the Caracas-La Guira Expressway, the Hotel Humboldt, the Pico Bolivar cable transport, the Torres Del Silencio, and more.
Every single one of those works still stands, to this day — 70 years later — having endured the folly of men — coups and coup attempts as well as incredible neglect of maintenance and upkeep — and the vicissitudes of nature — the 1967 and 2026 earthquakes and the horrendous rains of 1999.
They still stand.
In his memorable and enduring book and accompanying video series, How Should We Then Live?, the late Francis Schaeffer demonstrates that a civilization can be judged by its art, its architecture, its engineering, its construction projects, and more. He contrasts the art seen in Florence, Italy, with that which preceded and followed it. He discusses the uniqueness and endurance of Roman roads and aqueducts as well as the exquisite detail of Greek architecture contrasted with that of the more spartan Roman.
If Dr. Schaeffer is correct, then we must reckon with the magnificent works inaugurated during the Pérez Jiménez regime. To do so it is necessary to set aside our egalitarian, democratic prejudices and face reality, unencumbered by politics and ideology.
In the 50s Venezuela was a — several sources insist it was the most — prosperous South American country. She enjoyed economic freedom and was also “free” of the oratory of envy. Sources note that it had the largest middle class in South America.
I was born in the early part of that decade, during the Pérez Jiménez regime. I remember in childhood rubbing shoulders with friends and relatives from all social and economic strata of society. I do not recall folks politically fomenting class warfare or envy of any kind.
Later in life I came to realize that under the dictatorship, we did not enjoy a free press nor did we have universal suffrage. However, we did enjoy high levels of freedom, including freedom of mobility, freedom of commerce, freedom in society, and certainly freedom in our homes. We had nowhere near the restrictions the peoples of Eastern Europe or Mao’s China struggled under. Not to mention Fauci’s America.
In the first half of the 20th Century Venezuela became an economic powerhouse. As the petroleum and later the iron ore industries surged, Venezuela ensured they remained in private hands. The dictators understood that the state did not have the expertise to manage such vast, far flung operations; they left them in the hands of the international companies but did charge royalties and obtained other concessions in return. This arrangement ensured increasing prosperity for her people as well as great advances in local technology and culture.
This was a period of phenomenal progress in research and technology and discovery. “To cite just one example, the diamond knife (or scalpel) was invented in the 50s by Venezuelan Humberto Fernández-Morán Villalobos (1924-1999). This ‘significantly advanced the development of electromagnetic lenses for electron microscopy based on superconductor technology and many other scientific contributions.'”
In the 50s, the Venezuelan state was receiving billions and billions of dollars in monthly revenues (equivalent to today’s values). Well, so did the democratic regimes which followed, including Chávez and Maduro. But, unlike the latter two, the dictatorships were not involved as partners and major investors in illicit drug and mining operations.
The big difference between the 50s and later eras was that state spending focused on the country’s roads, airports, schools, hospitals, and universities. In other words, they benefitted the people of the country. Such spending was represented by major works as the aforementioned, plus the University Hospital of Caracas and her great historic monument and park, Paseo los Próceres (roughly translated as Walkway of the Heroes).
Caracas and La Güira also boasted a breathtaking cable car up Mount Ávila where the cylindrical Hotel Humboldt was built in the same decade and stands to this day. The design of the hotel was not only for beauty but to better withstand the strong winds which flow at those heights. And earthquakes.
In comparison, the 2026 earthquakes uncovered the sand castles nature of the most celebrated works of the Chávez regime: public housing. By now millions have seen the heartbreaking photos or videos of collapsed buildings and their foam — foam! — support.
I do not pretend to believe that corruption was non-existent in the Venezuela of the 1950s or that government functionaries all had clean hands then. However, using our Lord’s measuring stick: “By their fruits ye shall know them”, we can easily conclude that the level of corruption paled exceedingly compared to the mafioso-like environment which followed thereafter.
But one need not be a professional auditor with access to all the data, financial or otherwise, to conclude thusly. One need just take a look around and see the fruits and enquire as to when such were sown and/or reaped. Every single major work was either inaugurated or initiated prior to 1959. Even the gargantuan SIDOR, Venezuela’s giant steel corporation, was founded in 1953 although it did not see its greatest expansion until the 1970s. However, today it is dead, its death agonies having accelerated in the Chávez years when the military took over and bled it to the grave.
The marvelous Macagua project, right in the heart of Ciudad Guayana was ideated in 1946 when plans were launched to “electrify” the entire country and to export her fossil fuels for added revenues. Construction began in 1956 for Phase 1 and the plan achieved its Phase 3 in 1997. Today, however, only a fraction of her generators are functioning.
The magnificent Guri Dam project was also included in the 40s electrification plans for Venezuela and construction began in the early 60s, according to plan, after the initiation of the Macagua enterprise. Guri was certainly one of the engineering and construction wonders of the modern world when inaugurated. Today it operates at less than 50% capacity due to woefully neglected maintenance and upkeep.
Put another way, the projects conceived in the 40s and 50s remain in use to this day, although all urgently require professional upkeep, repairs, and maintenance, which, sadly, are woefully lacking in a Socialistic environment where “everybody owns everything” — meaning no one owns anything and the State is god but a terrible administrator and creator.
Should you travel to Venezuela today, you would land in Maiquetía Airport, in La Güaira, and you would take the Caracas-La Güira Expressway. Should you like to visit the Humboldt Hotel atop the massive, imposing Mount Ávila, you could take the cable car from downtown Caracas up there. In the past, you could also take the cable car down to the coast to make a full day of it and return by the same expressway back to the city. However, due to lack of maintenance and upkeep that leg is no longer operational.
You might also like to enjoy the large park, Próceres, with its aesthetically beautiful fountains and extensive mall. Or you might desire to take a cab to the still modern Torres del Silencio, with its traffic proceeding beneath the buildings to allow pedestrian tranquility above. And you might walk about the gardens of the University Hospital which still serves patients 50 years after her inauguration.
All projects noted in the previous two paragraphs were built and inaugurated in the 50s. They were designed and engineered by Venezuelan professionals, as well as Swiss, Italian, German, and North American; and they were built by men from the same or similar origins.
Of course, the upkeep and maintenance have been abysmal; however, the engineering, architecture, and construction have stood the test of time in a natural and human environment which have been exceedingly challenging. One of the great expressway viaducts spanning hundreds of feet of bottomless canyons actually became fearfully unsafe for lack of care. A byway was constructed in its stead in the 90s.
I am not aware of any projects ideated let alone inaugurated after the 50s which come within a mile of those which came before.
What would a visitor a century hence conclude when observing these works?
I am confident that his conclusion would be that the caliber of the people, especially the leaders, in the 50s and prior was superior to that which came after.
For the most part it is principally the people and their faith, not their form of government, which primarily determine her progress or its lack. Many in Venezuela still remember Pérez Jiménez and some even tend to idolize him, which is wrong. However, they do recognize that the man loved his country and was not the corrupt kleptomaniac that politicians insist he was.
The United States government not only dishonored the amnesty he had sought, but put him in jail even though he had paid his bond — this jailing in Miami, Florida, where he was placed with common criminals was so unprecedented and even cruel that many in the international community protested. By the time he was transferred to Venezuela he had lost 40 pounds.
In Venezuela he was jailed for 5 more years while awaiting what to every sentient human being was a political trial, from which he was declared not guilty for the original charges, as per the extradition treaty — peculation (the “fraudulent appropriation of funds or property entrusted to your care but actually owned by someone else”) — but guilty of other charges (enrichment!) — which the politicized judges added towards the end of the legal circus, in violation of the extradition treaty. Even so, the prestige of the judges was by then so soiled that they released him, saying he had already served sufficient years for such incredible charges.
He settled in Spain to live the rest of his life there; however, the people of Venezuela actually elected him to a Senate seat in the 1973 elections; nevertheless, the “democratic” political parties colluded to amend the constitution to prohibit his ever returning to the country.
The corruption and the malfeasance of public funds in Venezuela during the democratic governments were so vast and so obvious that the door was swung wide open to the demagoguery of Chávez. And, as previously noted, corrupt and repressive governments do not leave much of a heritage other than destruction or abandonment of what came before.
We must not ignore that particularly evil forms of government and culture not only do not foment the creation of beauty and functionality and permanence, but actually destroy what beauty and permanence they find. A brief look at Cuba and the Soviet Union makes this abundantly clear. Not to mention the utter deterioration in Venezuela itself, especially over the past two decades.
But — whether a republic as described in the USA constitution or a monarchy such as England’s during her incomparable industrial revolution or the monarchies of the GCC or the strict, autocratic government of Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore — a system which allows a certain level of liberty and creativity to her people will enable them to leave us long lasting evidence of beauty and permanence, assuming the caliber of the people is “moral and religious” as per John Adams.
In December, 1961, President John F. Kennedy and the First Lady visited Venezuela as part of the inaugural tour of the Alliance for Progress. You can still find online the short speech given in Spanish by Mrs. Kennedy. In that speech she spoke about the need for progress and opportunity for all, not just for the fortunate. Although I appreciate Mrs. Kennedy and her efforts to speak the local language, her speech is illustrative of the facile politics in the modern Americas.
In the 50s and into 1961 when the Kennedy’s visited, Venezuela had the largest middle class in all of South America. Today it is an impoverished land languishing under a suffocating “democratically elected” corrupt regime. Despite all the evidence right in front of her, the First Lady, like most modern politicos, assumed that the form of government dictates whether or not a people are fortunate. And she — and many, many like her — ignored what was right in front of her eyes.
A classic example of being led by sweet sounding words instead of reality; of being enamored of gestures rather than substance.
Her talk was well meaning but woefully ignorant.
