The Day Venezuelans Attacked Nixon

In the spring of 1958, President Eisenhower sent Vice President Nixon on a tour of Latin America to improve relations. Unfortunately, the tour would create even more friction, as it was punctuated by protests in various countries, including Ecuador and Peru. His May 13 visit to Venezuela turned violent and threatened the safety of the Vice President, his wife, and his support staff. Robert Amerson, who was Press Attaché in Caracas, explains the fragile transition Venezuela was undergoing at the time and how the publicâ??s opinion of the U.S.â?? and Communist Party agitprop â?? made for a very unwelcome visit. This is an excerpt from Amersonâ??s oral history interview with Allen Hansen, which began in 1988. 

 

If the Nixon visit had come while [dictator Marcos] Pérez Jiménez was in power there wouldnâ??t have been any problems, because the regime had means to control political demonstrations. Vice President Nixonâ??s â??good-will tourâ? around Latin America came about three months after the revolution, when Venezuela was still coming out of chaos. The police had disappeared when Pérez Jiménez fled the country.

 

The sequence was something like this:  In January of 1958 the people, in effect â?? specifically, clandestine political movements and dissident elements within the military â?? rose up against Pérez Jiménez because of corruption, because of widespread dissatisfaction under a regime where civil rights were restricted, where political prisoners were tortured. Everybody knew of something that they could blame the Pérez Jiménez regime for. Heâ??d been in power, this tubby little colonel, for more than five years, talking about â??economic democracy.â?  His regime was going to make the Venezuelans prosperous and happy by building roads and hotels on top of mountains, stuff like thatâ?¦. 

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