Second presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez

The second presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez (1988–93) started with an economic crisis, a major riot in which hundreds were killed by security forces (Caracazo, 1989), followed by an economic recovery by also two coup attempts in 1992, and his 1993 impeachment. He was the first Venezuelan President to be impeached.

Background

Venezuelan Presidential election 1988

Results

Candidates Votes % Carlos Andrés Pérez 3,868,843 52.76% Eduardo Fernández 2,955,061 40.40% Teodoro Petkoff 198,361 2.71% Abstention: 1,660,887 18.08% Total votes: 7,524,760

For the 1988 presidential election Democratic Action (AD) President Jaime Lusinchi backed Octavio Lepage as AD candidate, but in a primary election the party chose Carlos Andrés Pérez (previously president from 1974 to 1979).

Presidency

Carlos Andrés Pérez based his campaign for the 1988 Venezuelan general election in his legacy of abundance during his first presidential period and initially rejected liberalization policies. However, Venezuela's international reserves were only $300 million USD at the time of Pérez' election into the presidency; Pérez decided to respond to the debt, public spending, economic restrictions and rentier state by liberalizing the economy. He announced a technocratic cabinet and a group of economic policies to fix macroeconomic imbalances known as El Gran Viraje (English: The Great Turn), called by detractors as El Paquetazo Económico (English: The Economic Package). Among the policies there was the reduction of fuel subsidies and the increase of public transportation fares by thirty percent (VEB 16 Venezuelan bolívares, or $0.4 USD).

The increase was supposed to be implemented on 1 March 1989, but bus drivers decided to apply the price rise on 27 February, a day before payday in Venezuela. In response, protests and rioting began on the morning of 27 February 1989 in Guarenas, a town near Caracas; a lack of timely intervention by authorities, as the Caracas Metropolitan Police was on a labour strike, led the protests and rioting quickly spread to the capital and other towns across the country. President Andrés Pérez ordered the activation of Plan Ávila and the intervention of the military. A commission was established in the Venezuelan Congress with all its political parties to investigate the events during the Caracazo and unanimously voted for a report that concluded that 277 people were killed, though the Venezuelan media reported up to 3,000 deaths.

By late 1991, as part of the economic reforms, Carlos Andrés Pérez' administration had sold three banks, a shipyard, two sugar mills, an airline, a telephone company and a cell phone band, receiving a total of $2,287 million USD. The most remarkable auction was CANTV's, a telecommunications company, which was sold at the price of $1,885 million USD to the consortium composed of American AT&T International, General Telephone Electronic and the Venezuelan Electricidad de Caracas and Banco Mercantil. The privatization ended Venezuela's monopoly over telecommunications and surpassed even the most optimistic predictions, with over $1,000 million USD above the base price and $500 million USD more than the bid offered by the competition group. By the end of the year, inflation had dropped to 31 %, Venezuela's international reserves were now worth $14,000 million USD and there was an economic growth of 9 % (called as an "Asian growth"), the largest in Latin America at the time.

In 1992, his government survived two coup attempts. The first attempt took place 4 February 1992, and was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Hugo Chávez from the Venezuelan Army, 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, and this time, civilians and military personnel from both the Venezuelan Air Force and the Bolivarian Navy of Venezuela were involved. 172 died during the second coup attempt.

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. The money was used to support the electoral process in Nicaragua, and during the process it was revealed that the money was used to support and hire bodyguards for President Violeta Chamorro. 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.

Pérez' trial concluded in May 1996, and he was sentenced to 28 months in prison.

Second presidency cabinet (1989-1993)

Ministries
OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	Carlos Andrés Pérez	1989–1993
Home Affairs	Alejandro Izaguirre	1989–1992
	Virgilio Ávila Vivas	1992
	Carmelo Lauría Lesseur	1992
	Luis Piñerúa Ordaz	1992–1993
	Jesús Carmona	1993
Foreign Relations	Enrique Tejera París	1989
	Reinaldo Figueredo Planchart	1989–1991
	Armando Durán	1991–1992
	Humberto Calderón Berti	1992
	Fernando Ochoa Antich	1992–1993
Finance	Egle Iturbe de Blanco	1989–1990
	Roberto Pocaterra Silva	1990–1992
	Pedro Rosas Bravo	1992–1993
Defense	Italo del Valle Alliegro	1989
	Filmo López Uzcátegui	1989–1990
	Héctor Jurado Toro	1990–1991
	Fernando Ochoa Antich	1991–1992
	Iván Jiménez Sánchez	1992–1993
Development	Moisés Naím	1989–1990
	Imelda Cisneros	1990–1992
	Pedro Vallenilla Meneses	1992
	Frank de Armas Moreno	1992–1993
Education	Gustavo Roosen	1989–1992
	Pedro Augusto Beauphertuy	1992–1993
Health and Social Assistance	Felipe Bello González	1989–1990
	Manuel Adrianza	1990–1991
	Pedro Páez Camargo	1991–1992
	Rafael Orihuela	1992–1993
Agriculture	Fanny Bello	1989
	Eugenio de Armas	1989–1990
	Jonathan Coles Ward	1990–1993
	Pedro Luis Urriola	1993
Labor	Marisela Padrón Quero	1989–1991
	Jesús Rubén Rodríguez	1991–1993
Transport and Communications	Gustavo José Rada	1989
	Augusto Faría Viso	1989–1990
	Roberto Smith	1990–1992
	Fernández Martínez Mótola	1992–1993
Justice	Luis Beltrán Guerra	1989–1992
	Alfredo Ducharme	1992–1993
	Armida Quintana Matos	1992-1993
Energy and Mines	Celestino Armas	1989–1992
	Alirio Parra	1992–1993
Environment	Enrique Colmenares Finol	1989–1993
Urban Development	Luis Penzini Fleury	1989–1992
	Diógenes Mujica	1992–1993
Family	Senta Essenfeld	1989–1992
	Mabely de León Ponte	1992
	Teresa Albánez	1992–1993
Secretary of Presidency	Reinaldo Figueredo Planchart	1989
	Jesús Carmona	1989–1990
	Armando Durán	1990–1991
	Beatrice Rantel Mantilla	1991–1992
	Celestino Armas	1992–1993
Office of Coordination and Planification	Miguel Antonio Rodríguez	1989–1992
	Ricardo Hausmann	1992–1993
National Council of Culture	José Antonio Abreu	1989–1993
CVG	Leopoldo Sucre Figarella	1989–1993
Presidential Commission for the Reform of the State	Carlos Blanco	1989–1992

See also

• Second inauguration of Carlos Andrés Pérez
• First Presidency of Carlos Andrés Pérez
• Presidents of Venezuela

Bibliography

• Márquez, Laureano; Sanabria, Eduardo (2018). "La democracia pierde energía". Historieta de Venezuela: De Macuro a Maduro (1st ed.). Gráficas Pedrazas. ISBN 978-1-7328777-1-9.
• Rivero, Mirtha (2011). La rebelión de los náufragos (9th ed.). Alfa. ISBN 978-980-354-295-5.