Revolution, Reformism, and the Failure of Insurrection: Political Change and the Venezuelan Experience

The origins of Venezuela's contemporary democratic system lie in the 1928 student protest and uprising against the storied `Tyrant of the Andes', Juan Vincente Gomez. The years 1945-1948 were a time of radical change; only the intervention of the military and a decade of dictatorship was to alter the situation. When Romulo Betancourt won the December 1958 elections, he displayed sensitivity through gradual change and exchange. But this approach was eminently unacceptable to many younger people. Considers outcomes and lessons from the failure of insurgency.