For five days in October of 1981 Venezuelans, in a massive outpouring of emotion, mourned the death of Rómulo Betancourt. His singular dedication and extraordinary tenacity in the service of democracy will not soon be paralleled. For the architect of Venezuela’s contemporary pluralistic system, the struggle was long and unrelenting. Among the major protagonists in this drama was General Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Following his overthrow in 1958, Pérez Jiménez was the subject of a prolonged battle to secure his extradition from the United States to stand trial for crimes committed during his dictatorship. It is the recounting and analysis of this juridical and political conflict that constitutes the core of Judith Ewell’s splendid study.
As the author amply documents, the process exemplified Betancourt’s stress on administrative honesty and fiscal responsibility, on the importance of regularized legal procedures, and on discrediting dictatorship throughout the Americas (pp. 51-52). Rejecting the perezjimenista perspective, Betancourt sought to build attitudes and values contrary to historical traditions of self-enrichment and personal indulgence on the part of chiefs of state. For the dictator, whose defense sometimes reflected the belief that “everyone does it,” both the United States extradition hearings and the Venezuelan trial were rife with criticisms of democracy and popular participation.
Ewell has thoroughly researched the subject through archival investigation in both Venezuela and the United States, and demonstrates as well a thorough familiarity with the secondary literature. She proves preeminently skillful in untangling the labyrinthine legal maneuverings that, initiated by the provisional junta in 1958, concluded with the final guilty verdict on August 1, 1968. Juridical controversies and procedural questions are sorted out and clarified. In addition, Ewell properly keeps in mind the political dimension, very much the warp and woof of the extradition and trial.
The impact of the case on domestic politics is also considered, including Pérez Jiménez’s half-hearted effort to resuscitate his fortunes through his Cruzada Cívica Nacionalista (CCN). One might debate certain points of interpretation here, but electoral politics is not the authors central concern. What we have is a succinct, scholarly, and thoughtful probing of a complex judicial case bearing profound political significance. Ultimately, both legal and popular verdicts unequivocably rejected perezjimenista authoritarian excesses. The erstwhile strongman remains in luxurious European exile. He was not to emulate the triumphal return of Juan Perón, or even a Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Rómulo Betancourt, with his conviction that Venezuelans share a democratic vocation, could not have been surprised.
