Word: betancourts
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Caracas' Miraflores Palace one day last week, the classic challenge of a military usurper faced the moderately leftist government of President Romulo Betancourt. An hour earlier General Jesus Maria Castro Leon, 51, former Defense Minister and a tinkling symbol of Venezuela's top brass, had crossed the Colombian frontier. Proceeding to San Cristobal (pop. 90,000), 385 miles southwest of Caracas, he took over its 500-man garrison from a disloyal colonel and by radio urged other generals to help him "restore the prestige of the armed forces...
...months of Betancourt's constitutional regime have been the longest period in Venezuela's turbulent 150 years in which the armed forces have been out of power. How would the brass now answer Castro Leon's call to renewed power...
After an anxious early-morning hour, the heads of the services came to Miraflores Palace, joined with the President in a phone poll of the garrisons and the state governors. At 7 a.m., Betancourt walked to waiting microphones, and announced over the radio: "The air, ground and naval forces support the government...
...Much Support? Betancourt came out of the experience with nationwide support, perhaps more enthusiastic than he wanted. University students began gassing up beer bottles to make Molotov cocktails, and the trade unions called a general strike that not only made no sense but also went on for 16 hours after the coup ended. One trade-union chief threatened future military Putschists with civil war, and read a cable from Cuba's government offering 1,000 armed men. Betancourt showed less vulnerability to military coups than might have been foreseen, but he still has the problem of fending...
...private investment, which has so far provided $25 billion to Latin America, remains the best supply, but it is shy; Betancourt is paying off Pérez Jiménez' bad debts to prove good faith to private investors, nonetheless faces a painful outflow of private capital. But half a dozen new ideas for providing Latin America with capital are afloat in the hemisphere...