Word: mez
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Imprisoned in leg irons by Tyrant Juan Vicente Gómez in 1928, Betancourt faced almost sure torture and death, was only spared because of spontaneous strikes by sympathetic citizens...
...acquire the talents and virtues which distinguish our brothers to the north, a radical democratic system, far from being good for us, will bring ruin upon us." When he died in 1830, Bolivar left the country to a long line of strongmen. In 1908 Juan Vicente Gómez, "Tyrant of the Andes," began a 27-year reign. That same year, in the poverty-ridden town of Guatire, 40 miles from Caracas, a child was born to a wholesale grocer's accountant and amateur poet named Luis Betancourt.* Pleased that his second child was a boy, the proud poet...
...named Rómulo Gallegos. A brilliant writer-he later turned out the classic novel of Venezuelan backlands life, Doña Bárbara-and an inspiring teacher, Gallegos became the idol of Betancourt, as the prototype of a proud man willing to risk criticizing Dictator Gómez...
...Pounds of Iron. In February 1928 Betancourt and his friends organized a week of student protest. An intense, curly-haired young man in black beret and spectacles, Betancourt delivered an impassioned anti-Gómez speech in a movie theater. Four days later he was thrown into a Gómez dungeon, clamped in 96 pounds of leg irons...
Freed after three weeks and still enthusiastically rebellious, the Boys of '28 launched outright revoluton in April. They seized Dictator Gómez' Miraflores Palace (Gómez was away), grabbed all the guns they could find. They charged up the street toward San Carlos Barracks, where a confederate was supposed to fling open the gates and let them in. But the chief of the military forces arrived before the rebels, barred the gates and organized a stout defense. For the first time in his life, Rebel Betancourt fired a rifle. It was an ancient German weapon with...