page_title: Jaime Lusinchi
section_title: Presidency
hierarchical_section_title: Jaime Lusinchi / Presidency
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Caracas, 8. April 1987 Am 7. April 1987 startete der Bundesminister des Auswärtigen, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, zu einer Reise nach Mittelamerika. Vom 7. bis 9.4. besuchte er Venezuela und vom 9. bis 13.4. die Republik Costa Rica. Letzte Station seiner Reise war El Salvador. Am 14. April kehrte Bundesaußenminister Genscher nach Bonn zurück. Einweihung des Kulturinstituts der Asociacion Cultural Humboldt Bundesaußenminister Genscher (li.) im Gespräch mit dem venezolanischen Präsidenten, Dr. Jaime Lusinchi.
context_page_description: Jaime Ramón Lusinchi was a Venezuelan politician who was the President of Venezuela from 1984 to 1989. His term was characterized by an economic crisis, growth of the external debt, populist policies, currency depreciation, inflation and corruption that exacerbated the crisis of the political system established in 1958.
  Although accused of corruption after leaving office, Lusinchi was popular during his presidency, and was succeeded by a member of his own political party, Carlos Andrés Pérez.
context_section_description: Lusinchi started his presidency at the age of 59, promising to govern with fairness, transparency, social sensitivity and austerity in the use of public funds, while presenting himself as a moderate president.
  The first three years of his presidency were characterized by efforts to achieve economy stability, the paying off of the foreign debts, the reduction of public spending, the implementation of social programs benefiting the people and the promotion of industrial growth. These goals were not accomplished. However, agriculture and the iron mining industry were developed during his administration, the country achieved positive growth rates at the end of 1984, with a growth rate of 6% in GDP, but the official rate of unemployment inherited from the previous government of Luis Herrera Campins was 20%.
  During this period, the government started negotiations to restructure interest payments and amortizations of the foreign debt, which in 1985 was 36 billion dollars (of which 28 billion was from the public sector), contracted with the international private banking and multilateral agencies. The first positive result of this effort was that Venezuela regained a credit-eligibility rating. In addition, Lusinchi took initiatives to increase oil prices via OPEC.
  However, Lusinchi was not successful at crucial goals for the development of the country. The oil market was too unstable due to price fluctuations and thus unpredictable, the oil prices were low, and the Venezuelan economy was too oil-dependent. This led to a dismal situation due to an excessively high government fiscal budget, depleting financial reserves for the payment of debt, an important pledge made during Lusinchi's presidential campaign.
  1985, was characterized by a relative social peace and the absence of labor disputes and strikes, in part due to the support of the government by the largest trade union of the country, the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela, which had traditionally been closely linked to Acción Democrática. During this year, Lusinchi welcomed John Paul II, the first Pope ever to visit Venezuela. But in the second half of his presidency, the social malaise grew, and the government was pressed to change the direction of its policies. In December 1986, the government decided to devalue the official exchange of the national currency bolivar by 93%, culminating with three years of depreciation of the national currency.  Starting February, 1983, also introduced was a system of multiple currency changes. In 1987, Lusinchi finally stopped the economic program carried out from the beginning of his term in office, and gave up his attempts to pay off the external debt, control the fiscal deficit and restrain public spending.
  After that, Lusinchi decreed salary increases, price controls, emission of currency and compensatory bonds for subsidies. These measures tried to appease social tensions, that from 1987 on had appeared with more intensity. Among the consequences of this economic program were, more inflation and budget deficits.
  The return to economic populism as in previous administrations safeguarded Lusinchi's popularity. However, there occurred currency devaluation, corruption, media criticism and unsatisfactory results from the Presidential Commission for State Reform (COPRE) which was established on 17 December 1984 and whose work encountered the same bureaucratic problems and administrative inefficiency, which it attempted to solve.
  During Lusinchi's presidency some incidents also occurred, such as the Yumare massacre, in Yaracuy, on 8 May 1986 carried out by the DISIP (political police of Venezuela), executing nine members of the subversive group Punto Cero; and the massacre of El Amparo, in Apure State, on 29 October 1988, in which 14 fishermen were mistakenly assumed to be guerrillas and killed by the army.
  Lusinchi supported the former minister and political leader Octavio Lepage in his bid to be AD's candidate for the 1988 elections, but Lepage was defeated in the internal elections of the party on October, 1987, by the former president
caption: Lusinchi with Hans-Dietrich Genscher in 1987
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