Venezuela and the FALN Since Leoni

Abstract

After ten years of ruthless military dictatorship, the 1959 advent of a democratically elected government in Venezuela lifted popular hopes for social-economic reform and political democracy. In 1958, Romulo Betancourt (President 1959-1964) spoke like a revolutionary, in 1959 like a reformist. His initial actions were, in fact, reformist; but in the last four years of his regime, under pressures from Left and Right, he performed increasingly as a conservative.

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