Juan Vicente Gómez

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(b. Tachira, Venezuela, 24 July 1857; d. 17 Dec. 1935) Venezuelan, President and Dictator of Venezuela 1908 – 35 Gomez began his career as a butcher and cattle rancher before entering politics. He was exiled to Colombia before returning as an officer in Cipriano Castro's small Army of the Liberal Restoration in 1899. He became Vice-President before carrying out a coup to depose the President, General Cipriano Castro, in 1908. Initially Gomez was supported by both the Liberal and Nationalist parties and the European powers and the USA who believed Gomez would be a puppet for them.

However, Gomez systematically removed all internal challenges to his authority, and built an army and central administration leadership from his followers in Tachira. Between 1914 – 22 Gomez formally left the presidency in the hands of a provisional president whilst he remained "President elect" and head of the army, and even leaving Caracas to live in Maracay. He formally returned to the presidency in 1922, though leaving day-to-day matters of government in Caracas to his interior minister. He also appointed his brother as first and his son as second Vice-President. But factions soon formed around these two. In June 1923 Gomez's brother was stabbed to death in the presidential palace, and in 1928 after a wave of protests and a military uprising his son was forced to leave for Europe, and the post of Vice-President was abolished.

In 1929 Gomez again stepped down from the presidency whilst retaining power, but in 1931 in response to another military conspiracy he formally took over the presidency again where he remained until his death in 1935.

Gomez was undoubtedly a ruthless and bloody dictator, savagely repressing the student protests in 1918 and after, the various military uprisings, the frequent attempts at invasions by exiles, and in general all forms of protest. He also monopolized land and concessions for himself and his family and associates, and imposed strict censorship. Nationalist critics see his oil policy as an abject surrender of Venezuela's sovereignty. However, recent reassessments of Gomez have begun to stress his crucial role in Venezuela's modernization. He undoubtedly gave Venezuela a prolonged period of economic growth and relative political stability. He gave very generous concessions to foreign oil interests particularly in the 1922 petroleum law, but this did lead to the rapid development of the oil industry. He modernized and reformed the Venezuelan armed forces by creating a Military Academy. And through a policy of balancing the budget, his various ministers of finance ensured that a centralized tax collection system put Venezuela's public finances on a sound basis.

The Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez (1857-1935) presided over the transformation of his country from a backward nation into one of the globe's major oil producers and an important force in international commerce.

Juan Vicente Gómez was born in the mountain state of Tachira and had virtually no formal education. He started to work as a cowboy, and within a few years he was the owner of a substantial landed property in his native state. He had also become involved in the turbulent local politics of his region.

In politics Gómez associated himself with another Tachira native, Cipriano Castro, who led contingents in several civil wars of the last decades of the 19th century. When Castro organized, from exile in Colombia, an invasion of his homeland, Gómez accompanied him in the effort, and when it was successful and Castro became president of Venezuela, Gómez was rewarded with the vice presidency.

Although Gómez had already acquired an extensive reputation as a plotter and schemer, Castro was injudicious enough to go to Europe for medical attention in 1908. Gómez promptly seized power and told the President not to return. From then until his death, Gómez completely dominated the government, although he served as president only part of the time.

During Gómez's regime oil was discovered and began to be exploited on a large scale. The first oil well was brought in 1914, and during the next decade and a half there was a frantic scramble for concessions by the big international oil companies. Gómez bargained astutely with these firms, perhaps more to his own advantage than to that of Venezuela. By the 1930s the country had become one of the world's major oil producers, and the finances of the Venezuelan government had expanded dramatically.

A man of marked native shrewdness and utter ruthlessness, Gómez took advantage of this change to build up what was said at the time to be the largest fortune in South America, while treating Venezuela largely as his personal plantation.

With the increased government revenues Gómez paid off the whole foreign debt of the republic; he mounted an appreciable road-building program in the interior; and he modernized the armament of the military, upon whom he largely depended for his continuance in power. In the meantime, his regime was so arbitrary that Gómez became widely known as the "tyrant of the Andes." Opponents were ruthlessly eliminated by being put in jail, where they were frequently tortured or killed. Thousands of people fled into exile to avoid the wrath of the regime.

Power remained essentially in the hands of the rude mountain folk who had descended upon the capital at the turn of the century. The Venezuelan army was top-heavy with generals who had won their rank by loyalty to Gómez and shared with him the proceeds from the exploitation of the country. They were allowed to seize land and other goods so long as they did not challenge the dictator. Gómez himself acquired plantations all over the country and was reported to have actually assigned various army units to cultivate a number of these on his behalf. He munificently endowed many of the scores of children whom he was reported to have sired during his long bachelor life.

There were numerous plots against the Gómez regime. On several occasions, invasions were mounted by oppositionists from such offshore islands as Trinidad and Curaçao. In May 1928 university students in Caracas revolted and seized the presidential palace - where Gómez seldom stayed - but were finally suppressed. However, none of these attempts to oust the dictator prospered, and he died peacefully in bed in Maracay on Dec. 17, 1935.

Further Reading

There are two full-length biographies of Gómez in English: Thomas Rourke, Gómez, Tyrant of the Andes (1936), is hostile; while John Lavin, A Halo for Gómez (1954), is an attempt to revise the established view of Gómez and portray him in a more favorable light.

Leading C17 Spanish architect. He designed the Church of the Royal Convent of the Encarnación, Madrid (1611–16), an important prototype for monastic churches in Spain and Latin America. He planned the Clerecía, or Jesuit College and Church (Seminario Conciliar), Salamanca (1616–1750), based on Il Gesù, Rome. Much influenced by the work of Juan de Herrera, he succeeded his uncle, Froncisco de Mora (d. 1611) as architect to the Escorial and as Court Architect. He worked on the development of the Plaza Mayor, Madrid (1617–19), designing the ground-level arcades and façades.

Bibliography

• Norberg-Schulz (1986)
• W.Papworth (1852)
• van Vynckt (ed.) (1993)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
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