The Revolutionary Government Junta, also referred to as the first government of Rómulo Betancourt (1945–1948), was a de facto government of Venezuela, the first of the two governments of the Trienio Adeco, succeeding the government of Isaías Medina Angarita after the coup d'état self-styled as the October Revolution, organized by Democratic Action (AD) together with Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, and Mario Ricardo Vargas. The Junta was composed of five civilians and two military officers.
At the legislative and electoral level, elections were called for the Constituent Assembly of 1946, in which AD obtained an absolute majority. That Assembly ratified the Junta and promoted the 1947 constitution, which legalized full women's suffrage, and managed the first elections in which women voted for president. The leaders of the Junta prohibited themselves from running for any office in the elections they organized.
The Junta's judicial policy included the arrests and exiles of former presidents Isaías Medina Angarita (along with a large part of his cabinet) and Eleazar López Contreras, as well as the establishment of a Jury of Civil and Administrative Responsibility to evaluate corruption during the Gómez, López, and Medina administrations. In turn, the police were restructured and converted into the National Security Directorate.
Energy policy saw the halting of oil concessions and a profit‑sharing agreement with foreign companies known as the "Fifty‑fifty". After his electoral victory, Rómulo Betancourt handed over power to his party colleague, Rómulo Gallegos. Betancourt later led a constitutional government between 1959 and 1964.
Background
In 1945, the opposition led by Rómulo Betancourt reached an agreement with the elected successor of President Isaías Medina Angarita, Diógenes Escalante, to legalize direct voting for presidential elections, but Escalante's mental health deteriorated upon returning to Venezuela, so he was ruled out for the presidency.
Betancourt had a conversation with President Medina to reach a consensus candidate other than Escalante's substitute, Ángel Biaggini, proposing Óscar Augusto Machado to call "direct elections for the choice of a head of state within one year of government," which was rejected by Medina. Without government backing for the legalization of direct voting, on October 13 of that year, AD called for abstention in the upcoming presidential elections.
Parallel to that and in secret, the Military Patriotic Union (represented by Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Francisco Gutiérrez, and Horacio López Conde) and AD leaders (represented by Betancourt and Raúl Leoni) conspired to carry out the 1945 coup d'état, in which the military proposed forming a government presided over by Betancourt.
Betancourt wrote regarding the coup:
Cabinet (1945–1948)
MinistriesRómulo Betancourt Foundation (2006). "Political Anthology of Rómulo Betancourt, Fourth Volume 1945–1948."OFFICENAMETERMPresidentRómulo Betancourt1945–1948Home AffairsValmore Rodríguez1945–1946Mario Ricardo Vargas1946–1948Foreign RelationsCarlos Morales1945–1947Gonzalo Barrios1947–1948FinanceCarlos D'Ascoli1945–1947Manuel Pérez Guerrero1947–1948DefenseCarlos Delgado Chalbaud1945–1948DevelopmentJuan Pablo Pérez Alfonso1945–1948Public WorksLuis Lander1945–1946Eduardo Mier y Terán1946–1947Edgar Pardo Stolk1947–1948EducationHumberto García Arocha1945–1946Antonio Anzola Carrillo1946–1947Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa1947–1948LaborRaúl Leoni1945–1948CommunicationsMario Ricardo Vargas1945–1946Valmore Rodríguez1946–1947Antonio Martín Araujo1947–1948AgricultureEduardo Mendoza Goiticoa1945–1947Ricardo Montilla1947–1948Health and Social AssistanceEdmundo Fernández1945–1948Secretary of the JuntaLuis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa1945–1947José Giacoppini Zárraga1947–1948
Domestic policy
Legislative policy
The Junta decreed full guarantees for political parties in 1945, and called a Constituent Assembly the following year; according to the Venezuelan Electoral Observatory: "The press described the election of October 27, 1946, as the first absolutely clean elections in national history, without any incident, with order and tranquility." In those elections, women were elected as constituent representatives for the first time, with Ana Luisa Llovera elected as principal and eleven other candidates elected as alternates. The Constituent Assembly ratified the Revolutionary Junta for the executive mandate until the next presidential elections.
After the Constituent Assembly, a new constitution was sanctioned in 1947 granting full female suffrage. Rómulo Betancourt described his first government as becoming a "decree‑making machine."
Judicial policy After the 1945 coup d'état, almost all of Isaías Medina Angarita's cabinet was placed under arrest, together with former president Eleazar López Contreras and some state presidents (governors) until November 30 of that year; the two presidents and 14 additional officials, including former minister Arturo Uslar Pietri, were exiled to Miami. The president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Antonio Pulido Villafañe, was imprisoned.
Jury of Civil and Administrative Responsibility The Jury of Civil and Administrative Responsibility was a set of ad hoc trials established by the Revolutionary Government Junta of Venezuela on November 27, 1945, during the period known as the Trienio Adeco, charged with establishing responsibility for alleged embezzlement by Gómez‑era, López‑era, Medina‑era officials, and associates in previous administrations. The Jury examined a total of 108 files and issued judgments restoring assets to the national patrimony totaling Bs. 124,000,000.
Approximately 120 people from the three Gómez and post‑Gómez governments were tried. The process was controversial, and the Solicitor General of the Republic, Rafael Caldera, resigned because of it.
Defense During the first months of government, the Revolutionary Government Junta established the Nautical School. A new constitution was approved in 1947, which maintained compulsory military service but prohibited forced recruitment in article 30.
Energy In 1945, the "Fifty‑fifty" policy was agreed, under which profits from foreign companies and the Venezuelan state would be split 50%, also halting oil concessions. It is estimated that between 1945 and 1947, oil fiscal revenues rose from 581 million bolívars in 1945 to 952 million in 1946, and to 1,315 million in 1947.
Economics Betancourt stated that at that time they were convinced that Venezuela "cannot skip the stage of capitalist development of its economy," so he assured that what was being developed "is more akin to the democratic‑bourgeois revolution than to the socialist revolution."
The National Economic Council and the Venezuelan Development Corporation (CVF) were created, the latter in May 1946. The Venezuelan Development Corporation was set up to boost agricultural production, improve old industries and develop new ones. The food deficit problem in Venezuela was tackled first, with interested corporate producers and individual farmers made 20-year loans at 4% interest to buy fertilizer, machinery and seed incidental (as noted by one study) “to expanding the production of maize, rice, beans, and sugar.” Credits were also extended to milk producers, and also for the purposes of combating diseases and insect pests, drilling water wells, and importing new breeds.Venezuela by Edwin Lieuwen, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1961, P.82
The Basic Economy Corporation was also created with capital contributions from Standard Oil of New Jersey and its Venezuelan subsidiary, the Creole Petroleum Corporation.
Security The Revolutionary Government Junta reorganized the police, creating the Dirección de Seguridad Nacional in August 1946.
Electoral policy
After its installation, the Revolutionary Government Junta promised respect for all parties, including the National Democratic Party of Isaías Medina, swearing not to have privileges as the ruling party in the upcoming elections.
The members of the Revolutionary Junta disqualified themselves from running as constituent deputies or as president.
On March 15, 1946, the Junta approved Decree 217, which enacted the Electoral Statute that guaranteed "the right to vote for all Venezuelans over eighteen years of age." That year, elections for the 1946 Constituent Assembly were held, in which 92% of registered voters voted and AD won the majority, with 137 deputies (1,099,000 votes).
In 1947, the first secret and direct presidential elections since 1897 were held, and the first under universal suffrage, in which writer Rómulo Gallegos was elected president for AD.
Labor A separate Ministry of Labor was set up, while the government encouraged the growth of trade unions and helped end a dispute in the petroleum industry to the benefit of the workers.The Latin American Nations Today A Study of Political Developments Since World War II Volume 3 By Raymond Estep, Publisher: : Documentary Research Division, Aerospace Studies Institute, Air University, 1964, P.261 The intervention of the AD labor minister (who got union and company officials to agree to negotiate) led to the signing in June 1946 of a 18-month collective contract that regulated working conditions in the entire petroleum industry. This agreement included extra hospital benefits, special compensation for night work, payment for a weekly rest day and for travel time, and large wage rises. When this contact expired at the end of 1947 the AD junta guided discussions towards an agreement to new three-year collective contract which (as noted by one study) “embodied extensive additional gains for the worker.”Venezuela by Edwin Lieuwen, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1961, P.79
On November 30, 1945, it was decreed that the salary of the president and his ministers would be 4,000 bolívars. The Labor Law was reformed. Salaries of all public officials were reduced, and their Christmas bonuses were eliminated. According to Betancourt, between 1945 and 1947, 740 unions had registered with the Ministry of Labor.
From 1945 to 1948, average real wages went up by 65.% Venezuela by Edwin Lieuwen, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1961, P.79
Transport The Revolutionary Government Junta founded the National Railways Institute and reduced domestic airfare prices.
Education Major efforts were undertaken to tackle educational deficiencies in Venezuela; with more than 50% of adults illiterate and only a third of children attending class. The education budget was trebled while the number of teachers and schools increased, resulting in secondary and university enrolments more than doubling and primary school enrolment more than trebling. To tackle illiteracy, hundreds of reading and writing centers were set up where over 30,000 adults were enrolled by 1948.Venezuela by Edwin Lieuwen, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1961, P.81
The Revolutionary Government Junta also reopened the University of Zulia (LUZ), which had been closed since 1904 by the dictatorship of Cipriano Castro. In mid‑1946, Minister Luis Beltrán Prieto Figueroa promoted Decree‑Law 321 on Grading, Promotions and Examinations in Primary Education, Secondary Education and Teacher Training, an official document that influenced the grading, promotion and examination system in primary and secondary education, which led to a confrontation between the government and the Catholic Church, the main provider of private education in the country, culminating in the abolition of the decree through Decree 344, which was supported by AD and the PCV but rejected by Copei and URD.
Health