Venezuelan ex-President Rafael Caldera dies at 93

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ and JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writers

CARACAS, Venezuela – Rafael Antonio Caldera, a two-time president who helped establish democracy in Venezuela and issued the pardon that allowed Hugo Chavez to rise to power, died Thursday in Caracas, his son said. He was 93.

Andres Caldera, in comments to Venezuelan television, did not give the cause of his father's death, but the former president who governed Venezuela from 1969-1974 and 1994-1999 had suffered from Parkinson's disease for several years.

Although 20 years divided his terms, Caldera's manner of ruling was the same: Reserved, tough with political adversaries and inclined toward populism. He was also known for living simply and eschewing luxuries, and for integrity in a country where corruption is common.

In 1994, Caldera pardoned Chavez, who was jailed for leading a failed military coup two years earlier. But Caldera was later deeply at odds with Venezuela's current president.

Chavez called Caldera's family to express his condolences, the son said. Family members said they do not want the government to play any role in commemorating him.

"The family has already discussed the matter, and we decided we will not accept any homage from the government of Hugo Chavez," he said.

Caldera was considered one of the last survivors of the generation that built Venezuela's democracy.

Born in 1916 in the northwestern state of Yaracuy, he obtained a political science degree at the Central University of Venezuela, entered politics in the 1930s, and in 1946 founded the Social-Christian COPEI party, a movement grounded in the middle class.

Fully democratic presidential elections were held the following year, won by the novelist Romulo Gallegos.

But democracy collapsed and Caldera helped revive it as one of the three signers of the Punto Fijo pact, which organized elections after the fall of dictator Gen. Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958.

Under the pact, COPEI and Romulo Betancourt's Democratic Action party shared power for nearly 40 years.

"One of the heroes of our civil democracy has disappeared," former presidential candidate and COPEI leader Eduardo Fernandez said.

In his first term as president, Caldera eliminated the remnants of leftist guerrilla movements by granting them a general amnesty. The period was also marked by lavish government spending of oil revenues on public works and a growing bureaucracy.

Two decades later, with Venezuela in turmoil following two failed military coup bids in 1992 and the impeachment of President Carlos Andres Perez on corruption charges, Caldera won a new term without the backing of COPEI, breaking the Punto Fijo power-sharing pact he had helped craft.

In office, Caldera soon confronted the nation's worst banking crisis, in which half of Venezuelan banks failed. He decreed price and currency exchange controls to surmount the crisis and focused on development in interior Venezuela.

Caldera led the country through relative stability, and also granted amnesty to a young army paratroop commander behind one of the coup attempts: Hugo Chavez, who four years later would be elected to succeed Caldera.

Chavez and the author of his release from jail had a testy relationship over the years, however.

In a 2003 newspaper interview, Caldera warned that violence could ensue if Chavez, using state resources, blocked efforts to hold a recall referendum on his leftist presidency. Caldera questioned the legitimacy of a new constitution under which Chavez has increased his power.

Chavez shot back that the comments "reflect the depths of desperation" that opponents to his rule had reached. He blamed Caldera and others for creating a corrupt system that left millions of Venezuelans to live in poverty.

Caldera is survived by his wife, Alicia Pietri, and six children.

A funeral is scheduled for Dec. 26 in the capital.