Note: For those who want to see the previous story, you can find it here

After the death of Gómez, Venezuela was in a dire situation: Gómez stopped the progress of the country in 1913 and he destroyed the economy (by practically gifting the oil and other resources in Venezuela), the education (if you stand out it wouldn't be because you were good, it would most probably be because everyone else was bad) and the politics (he destroyed any memory of the politics of the 19th Century to the point that only those above 50 years would remember how it was in those times), many of Gómez's followers (especially those in the exterior) were constantly asking Gómez to change Venezuela or at least prepare it for it, but Gómez never listened and, in fact, the older he got, the worse he was.

So when Gómez finally dies Venezuela was barred, a big land ready to be filled with new ideas (both politically and economically), but since nobody knew anything about politics, who to take care of the country? and here enters the new president of Venezuela:

Eleazar López Contreras was Gómez second in command and was very loyal to him, but one of López's sons was among the students who protested against Gómez, something that shocked López Contreras, Gómez offered giving him an indult, but López's son refused it and prefered to be sent to jail, during this period Gómez would constantly suspect that López could try to stage a military strike against him, but López never tried such a thing.

Now that Gómez was dead, Eleazar López Contreras was the Andino with the highest rank in the government (since it still was dominated by the Andinos who were military guys), the congress authorized him to finish Gómez's government period and shortly after, López made a new constitution that shortened the Presidency from 7 years to 5 and (to show that he wouldn't be abusing power) he would make his presidency with the new constitution, which meant that he would be a president for the constitutional timeframe of 1936 to 1941, the President couldn't be reelected and, to cap it all off, this was decided through elections, so he also was a democratically elected president.

With this fixed, the next step López Contreras did was giving amnesty to ALL the Venezuelans that Gómez exiled or sent to jail (including the students of the Generation of the 28th, who by this point were influenced by the ideologies of Marx and the US definitions of Democracy) and allowed them to have a talk in the political stage of Venezuela.

He focused on reducing the Authoritarianism that was too common during the presidency of Gómez, which was really hard because the Congress along with a big part of the government was filled with gomecist who used any excuse to exile (again) anyone who tried to change things too much, i.e: They conscripted Communism and exiled anyone under the pretext that he/she was a communist (whether this was true or not).

During his presidency, Eleazar López Contreras had to struggle with take out Venezuela from a dictatorship and send it back to a democracy, one of the first steps he did for this was the creation of a new law for the workers that would give them better rights and better work conditions (that Gómez never cared for).

The creation of a Ministry of Sanity and social help through a decree in February 25th of 1936 which started to fight the diseases that has been plaguing Venezuela for the last decades, as a proof of this, it was brought and applied the recommendations of the Congress of Public Health of Washington in 1936 and External experts on the field of medicine and sanity were hired to help the country.

He created the Ministry of Agriculture and Breeding which started agriculture development to the country.

He created the Venezuelan Counsel for children and Statute of minors.

He created the Teaching Institution of Caracas (El Pedagógico de Caracas) in 1937 for the formations of teachers which still exist today and the results of this could be seen that by the end of his presidency, the amount of people that couldn't write nor read dropped by a 50%.

He created the Caracas Firefighters Body.

In August 4th of 1937 he created the National Guard to fill the emptiness existing inside the institutions of the State. This National Guard (Guardia Nacional o GN) was the new police division and they still exist today.

He created the Museum of Bellas Artes (for art) and the Museum of Science in 1938.

In 1938 he created the Institution of Inmigration and colonization to planify a way to give Venezuelans and Foreigners Latifundios (large pieces of land to be used for agriculture and trade).

In 1939 when the Jews started to get exterminated by the Nazis, he [Eleazar] gave them [the Jews] Shelter and allowed them to live in Venezuela, the descendants of this Jews are a big part of today's Jewish Community in Venezuela.

He created the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) in 1940 to centralize the emission of paper money and coins, this also allowed a better management of the Venezuelan coin.

In 1941 (very close to the end of his presidency) he made a Treaty of delimitation with the Nation of Colombia that finally settled the territorial disputes between them (but this deal wasn't very well accepted by the Military in Venezuela since it took away a lot of the southern territory of Venezuela).

In the social aspects, he had to struggle with the Population of Venezuela who was asking for justice against all the me who suppressed them during Gómez's dictatorship, the population would constantly be making revolts and protest which led to the creation of the National Guard to pacify the country so everybody could finally feel safe and the Gomecist police could finally be gone.

In 1941, new elections were held and the winner was the General Isaías Medina Angarita for the constitutional period of 1941 - 1946 But he is a story for another time.

In the end the government of López Contreras was what could be called a good presidency, focused on fixing all the damage that Gómez did and sending the Country towards the right direction, he was a man that understood the direction Venezuela had to take and tried to prepare it for the world stage, fighting off the communism and the nazism that was starting to plague the world and, lastly, to prepare Venezuela against the new WWII that was going to affect the nation in ways that WWI didn't.

For those who are wondering I won't say everything he did afterwards since it would be kinda spoilery on history but years later, in 1963 he was given a copy of Bolívar's sword (the Symbol of Generals) and was the very first to recieve it from one of the Presidents of the Generation of the 28th and he wrote a few books ("The thinking of Bolívar the Libertador" in 1963 and "Government and Administration 1936 - 1941" in 1966).

He suffered Lung problems in 1972 and finally died in January 2nd of 1973, at the age of 89 years, he was considered an example of civility and his government was recognized as historical and good.

After his death, there is a decree of 3 days of mourning in the country, given the honours of Chief of State and buried at the sound of 21 Cannon roars. And so big was his love for the National Guard that his last wish was fulfilled: 4 National Guards carried his rest on their shoulders to his grave.

He also wrote the Book "Cipriano Castro", "Pages of Military history in Venezuela" in 1948, "The Triumph of truth" in 1949, "Themes of Bolivarian History" in 1954 and "Social Political Process" in 1955.

Next time, you'll meet the most democratic President Venezuela has ever met (during the full swing of WWII nonetheless) and the end of the Andino Government.

Thanks for reading, have a nice day.

Next part of the story is right here

5131487
Really fascinating, I enjoy learning the history of other countries and this was really enlightening. Keep posting dude.

5133972

Thank you very much, the feedback always help to keep wanting to write more.