Word: betancourt
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...politicians of Venezuela took to TV last week and made note of a heartening accomplishment: in the year since President Rómulo Betancourt, 51, was elected, the country has for the first time in history had a functioning constitutional democracy under popularly chosen leaders and with full freedoms...
...ruled through most of its 130 years by dictators, the transition was made with the aid of a crutch: a pre-election agreement among the major parties that whichever won would take the others into coalition government. At last week's celebration, televised from Caracas' White Palace, Betancourt, founding father of the Acción Democrática (A.D.), explained that "traditionally in Venezuelan politics the winners on reaching power enjoyed all rights and advantages, while the vanquished were left with only that curious form of political privilege known in Latin America as the 'right to conspire...
Sitting beside Betancourt, the heads of the other coalition parties, Jóvito Villalba of the Democratic Republican Union (U.R.D.) and Rafael Caldera of the Social Christian COPEI, reaffirmed the pact with such emphasis that they unconsciously revealed the strains within it. Most of the strains come from the division among the parties of Cabinet posts, state governorships and autonomous state institutes, e.g., social security. Villalba's U.R.D., for example, complained loudly that the A.D. had taken the lion's share and that the U.R.D. deserved the governorship of the federal district, including Caracas, because in the election...
...democracy would not necessarily fall, because parties in true opposition are the normal state of this form of government. But breaking the coalition would bring two dangers. One would be an opening for the Communists, who are frozen out of the coalition and kept in control by Betancourt's government. The other would be political chaos that might invite intervention from the military, which is also kept in control by Betancourt. So far, these fears influence Villalba and Caldera more than transitory resentments against Betancourt, and keep the three politicians sitting at the same table. Said Caldera: "The parties...
...like the riots in Bogotá in 1948. But the U.S. is by no means isolated and embattled. Major hemisphere nations, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, have friendly and responsible governments and people. Such authentically liberal chiefs of state as Alberto Lleras Camargo of Colombia and Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela are increasingly wondering about Castro. Betancourt fortnight ago barred a visit by the Cuba revolution's foremost proCommunists: Majors Raúl Castro and Ernesto ("Che") Guevara...