From Soldiers to Politicians

Who built modern Venezuela?

In this episode, we go back to the collapse of nineteenth-century Venezuela and the rise of the generals who built the modern state. From Cipriano Castro and Juan Vicente Gómez to the discovery of oil, the slow opening under Eleazar López Contreras and Isaías Medina Angarita, and the dramatic collapse of Venezuela’s first democratic transition.

Because Venezuela was not built by politicians. It was built by soldiers.

And even when democracy finally arrived... the military never truly disappeared.