1957 The year that Venezuelans lost their fears

Lots of words had been written about the government of Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Many people believe that this administration was the last dictatorship in Venezuelan history. Others consider it as one of the richest and prosperous periods in the country’s record. Putting in one side both points of view there’s something that can’t be denied: January 23 of 1958.

This date marks the end of Perez Jiménez’s regime. At a first glance, we can fall into temptation by simplifying things and convert “January 23” into a merely propagandistic issue. “Democracy triumphed, it was a victory of the people” is the common comment made by the analysts.

But, have we been truly involved in the real meaning of this date in Venezuelan history? This question, according to my judgment, is the one that allows the development of Simon Alberto Consalvi’s “1957 El año en que los venezolanos perdieron el miedo”. This book studies the factors that conducted Venezuela to the date that we all know as “23 de enero de 1958”.

1957 was a year of pronouncements and definitions. Just in the moment when the government modified the Venezuelan oil policies, favoring with new concessions the foreign companies and investors, just in the moment when the government seems to have everything under control, there was a little bird out of cage that represented a huge obstacle: presidential reelection.

According to the Constitution of 1953, Perez Jimenez couldn’t run again for office. Therefore, he prepared a plebiscite that was totally illegal. Suddenly, the society started to wake up from a large period of silence that generated an amazing democratic wall. This democratic spirit is collected by Consalvi in his book.

The author offers a recompilation that shows the most important documents that conducted to “el 23 de enero”. Thus, you may find manifestos of “la Junta Patriótica” together with articles published by Luis Herrera Campíns and Rómulo Gallegos in the exile. Finally the book contains the statements made by several of the principal professional associations that gathered lawyers, doctors, intellectuals and woman from Venezuela, among with the crucial pastoral chart written by Monseñor Arias Blanco.

Inevitably this situation has a kind of parallelism with the year 2007 that Venezuela recently experienced. The constitutional reform would have conducted the country towards a socialist system filled with a doubtful democratic condition. Many people asked if the Venezuelans will loose their fear once again as a consequence of the violation of their freedoms and democracy.

Recent fact seems to forecast a favorable wind to this issue. However, this is a process that is only beginning and it would be risky to establish final conclusions. When we read Consalvi’s book we can find out that there’s always the possibility to learn, and most of all, to understand an event that functions as a motivator of all the believers in freedom and democracy from Venezuela and Latin America.