page_title: Miguel Otero Silva
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Miguel Otero Silva / Early career
caption_attribution_description: Fort Amsterdam (Curaçao) This is a photo of a monument in the Dutch Caribbean on the island Curaçao identified by the ID 520236
context_page_description: Miguel Otero Silva, was a Venezuelan writer, journalist, humorist and politician. A figure of great relevance in Venezuelan literature, his literary and journalistic works related strictly to the socio-political history of Venezuela. Throughout his life he was repeatedly forced into exile. Later on, after the establishment of a democratic state in 1958, he was elected to the Venezuelan Senate.
context_section_description: Born in Barcelona, Anzoátegui, Otero Silva moved to Caracas at very young age to attend high school at the Liceo Caracas. He later studied civil engineering at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. During this time he engaged in early literary activities, writing for magazines and newspapers such as Élite and Fantoches, as well as other university publications. He also started dabbling in journalism.
  During the country's Student’s Week in 1928, Otero Silva formed part in a series of protests against the rule of dictator Juan Vicente Gómez (see Generation of 1928 ). He also became involved in a military plot to overthrow the government, which forced him into exile, in Curaçao. There, along with Gustavo Machado, Rafael Urbina López and other Venezuelan expatriates he participated in the taking of Fort Amsterdam in Willemstad on June 29 of the same year, in another attempt to overthrow president Gómez. The plot, supported by 250 men, in addition to notable communists  such as José Tomás Jiménezand Guillermo Prince Lara, involved the kidnapping of governor Leonardus Albert Fruytier. The revolutionaries plundered the island's weapons, ammunition and treasury and hauled governor Fruytier back to Venezuela on board the stolen American ship Maracaibo. Although the revolutionaries landed at La Vela de Coro they were defeated by Gómez' forces, and the raid ended in failure. Otero Silva was once more sent into exile, this time in Colombia. He was accompanied by Machado, Urbina, as well as other revolutionaries. During this time, Otero Silva worked on his first novel, Fiebre (Fever), later published in 1939. By 1930 he had become affiliated with the Marxist group, Comintern.
caption: Fort Amsterdam of Willemstad which was taken by Venezuelan revolutionaries in 1929.
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