Word: betancourts
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Unlike Rómulo Betancourt, his friend and fiery predecessor, Venezuela's President Raúl Leoni avoids table-pounding talk and precipitate action. "What I do," he says, "I do after lengthy consultation. A chief of state cannot ignore other voices." Last week, in his first annual message to Congress, Leoni stood for almost three hours in Caracas' capitol building and demonstrated the effects of his velvet glove...
Stanley cited Premier Castro of Cuba, former President Betancourt of Venezuela, Premier Ben Bella of Algeria, former President Paz Estenssoro of Bolivia, and President Sukarno of Indonesia as Communists supported by the U.S. "I ask myself," he said, "'Were we fooled, or was it treason?' It's enough to make you become a right-wing extremist...
...five months since Betancourt stepped down, the Venezuelan economy has continued climbing steadily. Gross national product, which rose 5.8% last year, is expected to climb 8.2% this year. Industrial production, up 8.7% last year, is on its way to a 15% gain for 1964. Foreign reserves stand at $800 million-highest of any Latin American country. And where Betancourt often met congressional resistance to his programs, Leoni has maneuvered through all 18 bills introduced by his government-though lacking the coalition majority that Betancourt had. Leoni's biggest triumph: his four-year, $850 million public works program for developing...
After the Macho. Few presidents have ever had a more difficult act to follow. With his dash and magnetic oratory, Betancourt was a macho, the fiery tough-guy who helped topple Dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1958, tamed the military, walloped the Communists, and rammed through the initial economic and social reforms that started Venezuela on the road to recovery. More than anything else, Betancourt -the first popularly elected President in Venezuelan history to complete his term-proved that democracy could work in his country...
...under Betancourt, the presidential household often resembled a threering circus. Appointments were constantly broken while the President chased hither and yon. Leoni, who spent six years straw-bossing Betancourt's A.D. Party, is a better administrator. He sees every minister at least once a week privately in his office, presides at a regular weekly full-dress Cabinet meeting. He pays careful attention to Venezuela's sensitive military. And he still finds time for the public ribbon-snipping that Betancourt found so useful. Last month, on a trip to Maracaibo, Leoni dedicated a new teachers col lege, the first...