The Foreign Service Journal, June 2011

34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 1 1 O n Oct. 25, 1825, General Marquis de Lafayette de- livered a letter, and an accompanying locket, from George Washington’s family to Simón Bolívar, the Venezuelan general and politician known as the Liberator. The locket, which Bolívar is said to have worn for the rest of his life, contained a copy of Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington and a lock of Washington’s hair. It can be seen (in miniature) on most of Venezuela’s bank notes and paper currency issued from 1890 through the 1970s. (The bolivar replaced the peso as Venezuela’s currency in 1879.) The United States was among the first nations to es- tablish diplomatic relations with the newly created republic of Venezuela, doing so in 1830. And most of the patriots who drafted Venezuela’s Declaration of Independence (ratified on July 5, 1811) were admirers of the United States, and modeled the document on the U.S. Constitution. In 1904 and 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt in- tervened to prevent German and British creditors from seizing Venezuelan territory in payment of past-due debts. Thanks to Roosevelt the debts were restructured (and eventually paid in full on July 5, 1930). And in 1940, the Venezuelan government invited Herbert Hoover Jr., son of the former U.S. president, to help draft Venezuela’s oil leg- islation. The result was the “50/50” profit split, which be- came the industry standard in almost all oil-producing countries through the 1970s. Venezuela was slow to declare war on Germany during World War II but cooperated fully with the war effort, en- suring a steady flow of oil to the United States. President Isaías Angarita Medina drew up and applied a blacklist lim- iting economic activity by German citizens or descendants of German citizens for the duration of the war. He was also the first Venezuelan president to venture outside the country during his term, visitingWashington, D.C., to meet with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. In 1945, President Harry Truman provided then- Venezuelan ambassador and presidential candidate Dió- genes Escalante with air transportation home, on the presidential “Sacred Cow.” (Escalante subsequently fell ill and dropped out of the race; his absence provoked a cri- sis that ended with Medina driven from office on Oct. 18, 1945, by a coup.) After some hesitation, Washington de- cided to back the civilian-military junta headed by Rómulo Betancourt, and subsequently supported the democratically elected government (1948) of Rómulo Gallegos. Gallegos not only visited the United States shortly after his inauguration, but was invited to address Congress—one of the first Latin American presidents to be so honored. But even though Marcos Pérez Jiménez led a coup to depose Gal- legos, the Eisenhower administration, preoccupied with the Cold War, cultivated friendly relations with him. A low point in bilateral relations came in March 1958 when Vice President Richard Nixon disregarded advice from the U.S. ambassador in Caracas and came to visit the country in the midst of the confusion following Pérez Jiménez’ ouster. Nixon was booed and his limousine at- tacked but, fortunately, no one was hurt. Just a few years later, Washington pulled out all the stops in a successful effort to support Venezuela’s nascent democracy, especially during President Betancourt’s term (1959-1964). President and Mrs. John F. Kennedy’s De- cember 1961 visit highlighted the best of U.S. policy to- ward the region at the time (democracy and social progress). Pres. Kennedy inaugurated a housing project and visited hospitals and schools, all the while celebrating Venezuelans’ courage for having turned out to vote in the face of threats by extreme leftists. Other high points include Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez’s role as facilitator in the negotiations be- tween President Jimmy Carter and Panama’s Omar Torri- F O C U S Beginning in 1959, Washington pulled out all the stops in a successful effort to support Venezuela’s nascent democracy. 170 Years of Mutual Trust and Shared Interests