We have seen, necessarily at 20,000 feet, the encomienda and hacienda systems, the latter of which continued through the decades of revolutionary wars and the chaotic period leading up to the end of the 19th century.
If a land can experience déjà vu, then vast swathes of Venezuela certainly must have, as periods of turmoil and unrest were not unknown to her pre-Columbian history.
Scholars suggest that a major reason that advanced Indian civilizations such as the Aztec in Mexico, the Inca in Peru, and the Maya in Central America, did not materialize in Venezuela was the acute instability caused by the ferocious Caribs. They were a terror to extended areas of Venezuela, from the eastern foothills of the Andes, across the interminable llanos and hills, all the way to the Atlantic.
When the Spanish began their civilizing work there, they encountered a “backward” region unlike their experiences in other colonial regions.
There had been no opportunity for the Indians to settle anywhere and to develop into any semblance of a stable living arrangement. The Caribs themselves were totally anarchistic except when, for larger enterprises, they’d submit themselves to a chief; but that was always a temporary arrangement. As soon as the battle, expedition, or raid was over, off they’d go again on their own and with their own groups. They themselves left no permanent civilization, nor would they permit anyone else to do so.
It is no wonder that, in Venezuela, the Piranha (or Piraña) is known as Caribe, from Carib, who also gave the sea its name: Caribbean Sea (Mar Caribe, in Spanish). Their depredations in the pre-Columbian Caribbean are legendary. For more on the Caribe, see here.
Fast forward several centuries and, in the 19th century a terrible period of bloodletting and turmoil again wracked the country. Only this time it was not the Caribs, either in their human or fish incarnations. It was rather men inflamed by the siren call of egalitarian ideology, the same ideology that had left the land of France soaked in blood and its revolutionaries devouring one another.
It is a wonder that, throughout all the savage turmoil of the 19th century, the concept of land ownership still held sway. There had been confiscations of land from landowners who were deemed too pro-Spain, but overall, it was recognized that a confiscation, in effect, transferred legal title from one private party to another, whose right would be respected.
The Andinos — 1899-1958
Andinos are men who were cradled by the Andes Mountains in western Venezuela.
At the threshold of the 20th century, Cipriano Castro and his army occupied Caracas and took over the reins of government. He was the first of the Andinos and ruled from 1899 to 1909.
The beginning of the Andinos’ 59-year incumbency was inauspicious. Castro was as tyrannical and arbitrary as the man he deposed, Joaquín Crespo, who had managed to provoke England, resulting in a deeply resented arbitration decision by United States President Grover Cleveland. However, Castro managed to surpass his predecessor’s chutzpah by telling foreign businessmen who had suffered great losses due to domestic bedlam, in effect, to go pound sand.
This cavalier attitude was an open invitation for intervention by foreign powers who readily obliged by imposing a British-German-Italian naval blockade. And, for good measure, the Dutch attacked what little Venezuelan navy floated on the pond. This, in addition to internal revolts may have had a deleterious effect on Castro’s health and he travelled to Europe for treatment, from where he heard that his war minister, Juan Vicente Gómez, had taken power.
Juan Vicente Gómez — 1908-1935
And now we come to the second Andino, Juan Vicente Gómez, one of the most successful presidencies in Venezuelan history. We have touched on Gómez here and here.
He immediately removed the impasse with foreign governments through arbitration or, simply, contract fulfillment. By the end of 1909, Venezuela’s relations with the United States, France, Holland, and Colombia had been reestablished and her other external relations had been substantially normalized.
This is a series on ranchitos, however, we must pause briefly to look at the Gómez years and offer a perspective that is not usually found in the standard histories and Wikipedia entries.
The problem with Gómez was that he was not “democratically elected”, nor was he a communist or socialist. For more recent history, compare the opprobrium hurled at, say, Augusto Pinochet, to the press treatment of Fidel Castro during each respective rule. To further intensify the contrast, compare the reporting of the Chile miracle recovery under Pinochet to the reporting of the Cuban disaster under Castro, where “everybody had free healthcare and education.” If Pinochet had declared himself to be a Marxist Communist, he would have received better press.
In the case of Gómez, here is an extract from the Encyclopedia Brittanica entry:
“Political order attracted foreign petroleum investors….By 1928, Venezuela had become the world’s leading exporter of oil, and was second only to the United States in oil production. The oil industry brought the nation such benefits as high-paying jobs, subsidies to agriculture, expanded government revenues, and increased trade. The government oversaw construction of road networks, railroads, and port facilities. It also paid off the entire foreign debt and drastically reduced the large domestic debt. Yet the oil prosperity was unevenly distributed; most Venezuelans continued to live in poverty, and their health, housing, and education needs were ignored by the state. Meanwhile, Gómez and the top bureaucrats and army officers enriched themselves. The dictator became the nation’s wealthiest citizen, retaining power until his death, from natural causes, in 1935.”
John Guenther, the author of the “Inside” series published in the first half of the 20th century, based on his personal sources, said that Gómez tortured and killed his adversaries and treated Venezuela as his personal hacienda.
But, as usual, there is more to the story.
Gómez’s logo was Unión, Paz, y Trabajo (Unity, Peace, and Jobs). What he shrewdly captured in that logo was the longing of a people tired of senseless upheavals and desirous of the opportunity to raise their homes and businesses and rear their families unmolested by a tyrannical and arbitrary state. General Gómez determined to give them that.
A massive road network was planned and built, permitting, for the first time in her history, the communication, development, and sense of unity amongst the various extended regions of the country, which, until then, were totally isolated. The network included over 8,000 kilometers of paved highways, multiple bridges of engineering marvel, the expansion of ports and the construction of airports.
His cabinet and ministers included eminent men of that era, such as Dr. Santos Dominici, a brilliant medical pioneer who represented Venezuela in Germany, England, and the United States. Eleazar López Contreras, a military scholar and future president, and Rubén González Cárdenas, a educador whose reforms greatly improved the curricula in the Venezuelan school system, especially in the areas of history, geography, and civic duty. Countless elementary, high schools, and academies were founded and student participation increased from 25,000 in 1909 to 150,000 by 1934.
The confrontation with the Roman Catholic Church was eased, allowing numerous previously expelled congregations to return. Great personal security, such as was not seen in Venezuela since before the revolutionary wars, returned along with a widespread respect for private property (propiedad ajena).
Recognizing that Venezuela was rich in minerals but poor in technical expertise, the president negotiated concessions with foreign enterprises, bringing massive investments into the country. By the end of 1928, Venezuela had become the world’s second producer and the first exporter of petroleum.
Health was aggressively addressed, especially the high incidence of malaria in Venezuela (for more on malaria in Venezuela, see here). The National Health Office and Institute of Hygiene and Chemistry, Bacteriology, and Parasitology Laboratories opened in 1911 and a National Health Act was promulgated in 1912. During the 1920’s quinine was freely distributed in some regions.
Much more was done in social, economic, political, and cultural spheres, but enough has been mentioned to cast a bit of doubt on typical aspersions such as “[Venezuelan’s] needs were ignored by the state….” The stability of the early 20th century allowed growth, development, and general well-being in a country that had not seen such in well over a century. Even infant morality decreased.
In my childhood, I remember hearing a refrain, “Juan Vicente Gómez was the father of modern Venezuela.” That was en era uninhibited by today’s political correctness.
Eleazar López Contreras — 1935-1941
Already mentioned above as a member of the Gómez cabinet, he believed Venezuela, after decades of peace and prosperity, was ready for more political “activity” and also removed labor organizing restrictions. He modeled democratic transition by peacefully allowing himself to be succeeded by:
Isaias Medina Angarita — 1941-1945
Allowed more political activities and also granted new oil concessions, furthering another “petroleum boom.” However, the now more active politicians deposed him and took power, the first time a political party, AcciónDemocrática (Democratic Action) takes power in Venezuela. Rómulo Betancourt, a future president, leads a civilian-military junta.
Acción Democrática aggressively launches “reform” programs, including tax decrees and “land reform”. This provoked the more conservative and cooler heads to depose the junta.
Carlos Delgado Chalbaud — 1948-1951
A quiet man, he was assassinated by a personal opponent who in turn was also killed.
Marcos Pérez Jiménez — 1951-1958 (the last of the Andinos prior to democratic rule)
In the next post, we will conclude our review of the The Andinos and look at the transfer of power to Acción Democrática and Rómulo Betancourt, coinciding with the growth of ranchitos.
