The presidential candidacy of Arturo Uslar Pietri and the Venezuelan businessmen of the sixties. A critical approach

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-1109

Keywords:

60s, Arturo Uslar Pietri, businessmen, democracy, elections 1963, Liberalism, twentieth century, Venezuela

Abstract

Introduction: We address the relationship between Arturo Uslar Pietri and national business groups in the framework of the 1963 presidential elections. Methodology: it is bibliographic-documentary and qualitative. We study the writings, arguments, and speeches of both Uslar Pietri and a group of businessmen with a sense of participation to support the transformation of Venezuela. Results: Uslar Pietri suggests that in Venezuela the State intervenes excessively in the life of the country and this is dangerous for its freedom. It is urgent to strengthen private companies and civil society. Important businessmen such as Eugenio Mendoza and Nicomedes Zuloaga Mosquera agree with his approach. They tried to take advantage of these coincidences so that Uslar would have the support of the captains of industry in the 1963 presidential elections. Which in the end was not achieved. Discussion: Uslar Pietri showed himself to be a man with progressive, liberal ideas. Businessmen immersed in contradictions debated whether to support statist policies or free enterprise. Finally, Uslar Pietri did not have their financial support, nor did they support his candidacy. Conclusions: Arturo Uslar Pietri proposed a modernization program for Venezuela consisting of establishing a market economy, strengthening the private sector and civil society. The business community did not have that coherence and the presidential candidacy of Uslar Pietri, due to lack of support and unity, failed.  

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Author Biography

David Ruiz Chataing, Metropolitan University

PhD in History from the Central University of Venezuela (2005). Full-time Professor-Researcher, level 6, at the Metropolitan University of Venezuela. Among his publications: The centralism-federalism controversy in the Venezuelan press of the 19th century: 1864-1899 (2001), Venezuelan Loose Sheets of the 19th Century (2001), The Independence of Latin America (2005) Intellectual History of Venezuela (2011) and the biographies of Ignacio Andrade (2005), Francisco Linares Alcántara (2008) and Miguel José Sanz (2011) for the Venezuelan Biographical Library of El Nacional, co-published with Banco del Caribe; From Independence to the construction of democracy (2018), History of Ideas (2018), Democratic Caesarism, one hundred years after a great book (2021). He has also published various articles in peer-reviewed journals.

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Published

2024-12-31

How to Cite

Ruiz Chataing, D. (2024). The presidential candidacy of Arturo Uslar Pietri and the Venezuelan businessmen of the sixties. A critical approach. European Public & Social Innovation Review, 9, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-1109

Issue

Vol. 9 (2024)

Section

INNOVATING BUSINESS NARRATIVES: PERSUASION AND ADAPTATIONS TO THE NEW SOCIETY

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Copyright (c) 2025 David Ruiz Chataing

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