We will request cooperation from other democratic governments of America to ask, united, that the Organization of American States exclude dictatorial governments from their bosom because they not only affront the dignity of America, but also because Article 1 of the Charter of Bogotá, constituent act of the OAS, establishes that only governments of respectable origin born of popular expression can be part of this organism, through the only legitimate source of power that are the freely chosen elections. Regimes that do not respect human rights, that violate the liberties of their citizens and tyranny with the support of totalitarian policies, must be subjected to a rigorous sanitary cord and eradicated through the collective peaceful action of the international legal community.
― Rómulo Betancourt
Rómulo Ernesto Betancourt Bello (February 22, 1908 – September 28, 1981) was a Venezuelan politician and journalist who served as President of Venezuela from 1945 to 1948 and again from 1959 to 1964. Beginning as an opponent of the military dictatorships in Venezuela, Betancourt was the main promoter of the democratization of the country, for which he earned the nickname "The Father of Venezuelan Democracy", and was a fervent opponent of military dictatorships in Latin America.
Biography[]
Rómulo Betancourt was born on February 22, 1908 in Guatire. Betancourt's mother died when he was 10 years old, as a result of medical surgeries to cure her cancer.
During his university days, Betancourt was a member of the "Generation of 28", a group of university students who participated in various demonstrations against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. Soon Betancourt and the rest of the students would be arrested and tortured. After being released, Betancourt would participate again in another movement opposed to the dictatorship, which earned him being persecuted by the Venezuelan police and he had to go into clandestine exile in Curaçao.
During his exile, Betancourt joined Marxist-Leninist organizations and participated in different attempts to overthrow Gómez. During this time he lives in Costa Rica and joins the Communist Party of that country. The Costa Rican government issued an expulsion order to Betancourt, for which he had to live in hiding until his return to Venezuela after Gómez's death.
After his return to Venezuela, Rómulo joined the Movement of Venezuelan Organization, which after merging with other movements formed the National Democratic Party, which would be led by Betancourt. Due to being seen as a threat by the new military government that succeeded Gómez, Betancourt is exiled to Chile. During his exile in Chile, Betancourt writes about the expansion of fascism around the world and how Latin American countries should unite to fight it. During this period, Betancourt abandons his communist positions and opts for one closer to social democracy.
In 1941 he returned to Venezuela and founded a new political party, Democratic Action, he managed to carefully become the most important opposition force to the military dictatorship. Due to the government's refusal to legalize political parties and allow free elections, Betancourt along with other opponents carried out a coup that put an end to the military dictatorship.
The new provisional government led by Betancourt called "La Trienio Adeco" quickly adopted various measures such as granting the right to vote, anti-corruption laws, legalizing freedom of expression and other measures that favored Venezuelans. After three years of making democratic reforms, presidential elections were organized that gave the novelist Rómulo Gallegos the winner, so Betancourt would go on to work on international affairs for the new government, standing out for having a critical stance against military dictatorships in Latin America. However, Gallegos would be overthrown by a coup, so Betancourt had to go into exile in the United States.
During his exile, Betancourt opposes the new military dictatorship in Venezuela, so they try to assassinate him with a lethal injection, but he comes out unscathed. Later he moved to Cuba, but after Fulgencio Batista violently assumed power on the island, Betancourt was forced to flee to Costa Rica and then travel to different countries spreading democratic ideas and making speeches condemning authoritarian regimes and military dictatorships.
In 1958 the military dictatorship in Venezuela is finally overthrown and Betancourt returns to the country. In 1958 the presidential elections take place and Betancourt is elected president of Venezuela.
As president, Betancourt was able to direct the definitive transition to democracy in Venezuela, and re-establishes all the democratic measures applied in his first government. As president he had to face different military uprisings that tried to stop the democratic transition, and he also had to face the FALN, communist guerrillas financed by Fidel Castro that tried to destabilize the Betancourt government but failed in their attempt.
In an international arena, Betancourt became an ally of US President John F. Kennedy and applied the so-called "Betancourt Doctrine", which consisted in Venezuela condemning all authoritarian regimes and cutting off diplomatic relations with countries under dictatorships. In this context, Betancourt became a strong critic of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, which caused Trujillo's fury and he ordered an assassination attempt against Betancourt through a car bomb. Betancourt would be unharmed, although with burns on his hands, while the international community would condemn Trujillo's actions.
After completing his presidential term, Betancourt retired from political life and died on September 28, 1981 in New York.