Jaime Lusinchi

Jaime Ramón Lusinchi (27 May 1924 – 21 May 2014) was the president of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989.

Jaime Lusinchi was born in Clarines, Anzoategui, on 27 May 1924.

His mother María Angelica Lusinchi, who was of Italian-Corsican descent, gave him her family name.

Growing up without the presence of a father (who probably was an Italian immigrant), Lusinchi attended elementary school in his native Clarines and Puerto Píritu, and high school at the Federal School of Barcelona, Anzoátegui.

In 1937, at the age of 13, Lusinchi joined the National Democratic Party, organization created by Rómulo Betancourt against the government of Eleazar López Contreras.

In 1941 he began to study medicine at the University of the Andes in Mérida, but soon moved to Caracas continuing his career at the Central University of Venezuela graduating in 1947.

He married Gladys Castillo in 1941.

In 1941, Lusinchi was present at the foundation of the social democratic party Acción Democrática.

During his time at college, Lusinchi stood out as a political activist, was secretary of the School Medicine Council, vice president of the Venezuelan Association of Youth and vice president of the Student Federation of Venezuela - an organization with Marxist influences that became part of the "19 October 1945" revolutionary movement which overthrew the government of Isaías Medina Angarita.

In 1948, he was elected president of the Municipal Council of Freites District and president of the Legislative Assembly of Anzoátegui, as well as regional secretary of Acción Democrática.

After the overthrow of Venezuela's first democratically elected leader, Rómulo Gallegos, by a military-led coup on 24 November 1948, Lusinchi continued carrying out political activities whilst in hiding from the new military-dominated authorities.

For a time he worked in a hospital belonging to the oil company Mene Grande in San Tomé (Anzoátegui state), however he soon moved to Caracas to avoid persecution by security forces who had already arrested him several times before.

In Caracas he was part of the clandestine organization of Acción Democrática which, in coordination with the leadership in exile, established an organised resistance to the military dictatorship.

Lusinchi acquired responsibilities in the national secretariats of organization and propaganda, and was a member of the party's Political Bureau.

In 1950 he was one of the organizers of the nationwide strike of oil workers.

After the 1952 election fraud, which dissolved the Civilian-Military Junta and began the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Lusinchi was again captured and imprisoned at the National Security facility.

Lusinchi was jailed for two months and was beaten with a sword.

A month later he was transferred to the Cárcel Modelo (Model Prison) in Caracas, and was released shortly after that, beginning an exile of five years in Argentina, Chile and the United States.

During his stay in Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, he undertook postgraduate study in Pediatrics.

He resided in Santiago from 1953 and worked at Roberto del Río Hospital.

In addition, he struck up friendships with prominent figures in local politics, such as the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva and the democratic-socialist leader Salvador Allende.

In 1956 he moved to New York City, which was the focal point of Acción Democrática's leadership in exile, with Betancourt as the principal leader.

In the aforementioned metropolis Lusinchi obtained a master's degree in pediatrics, at Lincoln Hospital and the Bellevue Hospital Center, joining the American Academy of Pediatrics.

His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency depreciation, inflation and corruption that exacerbated the crisis of the political system established in 1958.

Although accused of corruption after leaving office, Lusinchi was popular during his presidency, and was succeeded by a member of his Acción Democrática political party, Carlos Andrés Pérez.

On 23 January 1958, democracy was restored in Venezuela.

Therein after the fall of the Pérez Jiménez Government, Lusinchi returned from exile, and joined the National Executive Committee of Acción Democrática as secretary for International Affairs.

In the 1959 General Elections he was elected deputy for Anzoátegui for the National Congress, being re-elected in 1963, 1968 and 1973.

In 1977, Lusinchi unsuccessfully ran for the presidency of Acción Democrática and in the 1978 elections was defeated by Luis Piñerúa Ordaz (who in turn lost against the candidate of COPEI, Luis Herrera Campins).

After this, Lusinchi was elected senator for the 1979-1984 period.

In March 1981 he was elected General Secretary of Acción Democrática, and on 29 June 1982, he was nominated as a candidate for the 1983 elections.

On 4 December 1983, Lusinchi with 56% of the votes, won the presidency, and Acción Democrática obtained an absolute majority n the Congress.

On 2 February 1984, he was sworn in as President of Venezuela for a five-year term.

Lusinchi started his presidency at the age of 59, promising to govern with fairness, transparency, social sensitivity and austerity in the use of public funds, while presenting himself as a moderate president.

The first three years of his presidency were characterized by efforts to achieve economy stability, the paying off of the foreign debts, the reduction of public spending, the implementation of social programs benefiting the people and the promotion of industrial growth.

These goals were not accomplished.

However, agriculture and the iron mining industry were developed during his administration, the country achieved positive growth rates at the end of 1984, with a growth rate of 6% in GDP, but the official rate of unemployment inherited from the previous government of Luis Herrera Campins was 20%.

During this period, the government started negotiations to restructure interest payments and amortizations of the foreign debt, which in 1985 was 36 billion dollars (of which 28 billion was from the public sector), contracted with the international private banking and multilateral agencies.

The first positive result of this effort was that Venezuela regained a credit-eligibility rating.

In addition, Lusinchi took initiatives to increase oil prices via OPEC.