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Presidency of Jaime Lusinchi

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Jaime Lusinchi
Presidency of Jaime Lusinchi
2 February 1984 – 2 February 1989
PartyDemocratic Action
SeatMiraflores Palace, Caracas
← Luis Herrera Campins
Carlos Andrés Pérez →


Presidential Standard (1970-1997)

Jaime Lusinchi served as President of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989 for Democratic Action.

Background

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The adecos chose Jaime Lusinchi and Caldera once more stood up for his party COPEI. The divided socialists offered Teodoro Petkoff and José Vicente Rangel. Petkoff had broken with the Communist Party and, with the veteran leader Pompeyo Márquez, had founded in 1971 the Movement for Socialism (MAS in Spanish), which was more or less inspired by the Prague Spring, when Czech communists tried to liberalize their country in 1968.[1] MAS was still Marxist but edging to left of center. Rangel was the son of a general during the Gómez autocracy, but he entered politics in 1958 as a moderate leftist. Rangel denounced the abuses of the adeco governments of Betancourt and Leoni—he accused them of allowing the secret police and the army to torture detainees—and he was the MAS presidential candidate in 1973 and 1978, both times doing badly. Teodoro was particularly disliked by adeco pardos. Teodoro was always trying to displace Rangel as his party's choice and finally, in 1983, the two men had a chance to test each other's popularity.

Much of the campaign was taken up by an "underground" debate about Lusinchi's mistress, Blanca Ibañez, and adecos insisted that his legal wife had simply "to bite the bullet". When the results were in, bipolarity worked and the adecos proved that they still had the pardos on their side by garnering 56% of the vote, the highest margin ever in a Venezuelan election. Caldera was down, but, as we shall see, definitely not out. But there were two novelties in the results: although Petkoff got more votes than Rangel, together they got 7% of the vote, which the left had never before achieved, although it is questionable whether Teodoro at that point was in any way the radical he had been before. Another result was that abstentions were 12% and this was significant because, as we saw, voting was compulsory in Venezuela and by and large Venezuelans had been very dutiful in this respect, and now they showed that not voting was catching on.

Presidency

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Corruption had always been an issue in Venezuela, but under Lusinchi it became the main issue, and most Venezuelans considered that corruption, and not sheer incompetence, was the root of all of society's ills. Lusinchi had divorced his wife and married Blanca Ibañez, who was considered very influential behind the scene and was blamed for abuse of power and nepotism.[2] The Venezuelan economy stagnated, and the country at the end of Lusinchi's regime was reportedly bankrupt. It would be reasonable to surmise that this should have been the end of bipolarity in the next elections, but it would be wrong. In the 1988 elections, the two ruling parties got a total of 93% of the vote. Petkoff fared very badly, but abstentions went up to 18%. The winner was none other than Carlos Andrés Pérez, for his second term. (In the Venezuelan constitution you could be re-elected as many times as you wanted as long as it wasn’t in successive elections.) The question was: How could a country whose descent into insolvency began with Pérez, who had botched so badly his first term, when corruption flourished as never before, have re-elected him with a majority that was barely less than the one Lusinchi got? This enigma has various explanations. That pardos were still adecos is an obvious one. The opposition to bipolarity did not have a leader is another. But especially, Venezuelans of all hues simply remembered that during Pérez's first term there had been a lot of money in circulation, things over-all had not been so dismal, and somehow they figured that Pérez could perform the miracle of making Venezuela "prosperous" again.

Lusinchi's cabinet (1984-1989)

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Ministries[3]
OFFICE NAME TERM
President Jaime Lusinchi 1984–1989
Homeland Affairs Octavio Lepage 1984–1986
  José Ángel Ciliberto 1986–1988
  Simón Alberto Consalvi 1988–1989
Foreign Affairs Isidro Morales Paúl 1984–1985
  Simón Alberto Consalvi 1985–1988
  Germán Nava Carrillo 1988–1989
Finance Manuel Azpúrua Arreaza 1984–1987
  Héctor Hurtado 1987–1989
Defense Humberto Alcalde Álvarez 1984
  Andrés Brito Martínez 1984–1986
  José Cardozo Grimaldi 1986–1987
  Heliodoro Guerrero 1987–1988
  Italo del Valle Alliegro 1988–1989
Development (Public Works) Héctor Hurtado 1984–1986
  José Ángel Ciliberto 1986
  Gustavo Mirabal Bustillos 1986–1987
  Héctor Meneses 1987–1989
Transportation and Communications Juan Pedro del Moral 1984–1988
  Vicente Pérez Cayena 1988–1989
Education Ruth Lerner de Almea 1984–1985
  Luis Manuel Carbonell 1985–1987
  Pedro Cabello Poleo 1987–1988
  Laura Castillo de Gourfinkel 1988–1989
Justice José Manzo González 1984–1988
  Pedro Torres Agudo 1988–1989
Energy (Mines and Oil) Arturo Hernández Grisanti 1984–1988
  Julio César Gil 1988–1989
Environment Orlando Castejón 1984
  Juan Francisco Otaola Paván 1984–1986
  Guillermo Colmenares Finol 1986–1989
  José Arnaldo Puigbó Motales 1988–1989
Agriculture Felipe Gómez Álvarez 1984–1988
  Wenceslao Mantilla 1988–1989
Labor Simón Antonio Paván 1984–1988
  José Arnaldo Puigbó Morales 1988–1989
Health and Social Assistance Luis Maniel Manzanilla 1984–1985
  Otto Hernández Pieretti 1985–1987
  Francisco Montbrum 1987–1989
Urban Development Rafael Martín Guédez 1984–1986
  César Quintana Romero 1986–1989
Youth Milena Sardi de Selle 1984–1987
  Virginia Olivo de Celli 1987–1989
Secretary of Presidency Simón Alberto Consalvi 1984–1985
  Carmelo Lauría Lesseur 1985–1988
  Carlos Croes 1988–1989
Office for Coordination and Planification Luis Raúl Matos Azócar 1984–1986
  Leopoldo Carnevali 1986–1988
  Modesto Freites 1988–1989
CVG Leopoldo Sucre Figarella 1984–1989

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Petkoff, Teodoro, Checoeslovaquia: el socialismo como problema, 1969
  2. ^ "Historia de Venezuela en Imágenes". Archived from the original on 2009-02-14. Retrieved 2012-05-22.
  3. ^ Gaceta Oficial de Venezuela, period 1984-1989.