VENEZUELA: Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez is finally buried in Caracas after dying in exile

Record ID: 602525

  • Title: VENEZUELA: Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez is finally buried in Caracas after dying in exile
  • Date: 7th October 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GERARDO BLYDE, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEPUTY, SAYING: "We are on the street today, paying tribute to a man who, even when faced with an unjust court sentence said, 'I comply with the court and will step down from power.' That's how a democrat speaks. That's how democrats are. They don't tie themselves to power. And that's why we're in the streets with Carl
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
  • Country: Venezuela
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2DYGVUQMKBG2MANDKMZYATUGL
  • Story Text: Former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, who had vowed never to return home as long as his nemesis, President Hugo Chavez, remained in power, was finally laid to rest in his home country Thursday (October 6) more than nine months after his death.
    Perez died of a heart attack on December 25, 2010 while in exile in Miami at the age of 88 and only returned to the South American country he once presided over on Tuesday (October 4) after a family dispute on where his final resting place should be was settled.
    The deal ended a protracted dispute among his survivors, clearing Perez to be buried in the land ruled by the former paratrooper who once led a coup attempt against him.
    Supporter Aleida Tovar said the burial should not be seen as a concession, but rather a nod to democracy.
    "He's an icon of Venezuelan democracy. He's a justification to all of us who believe that we need great people like Carlos Andres Perez in this country and that we are not burying him today, we are planting him so that the seed of democracy grow in this country," she said.
    Perez led the OPEC nation during Venezuela's oil boom in the early 1970s and was long considered one of Latin America's wealthiest politicians.
    He was first elected in 1974 and had a second term beginning in 1989 that was cut short by his impeachment on corruption charges.
    National Assembly Deputy Gerardo Blyde said the way Perez dealt with adversity reflected his democratic values.
    "We are on the street today, paying tribute to a man who, even when faced with an unjust court sentence said, 'I comply with the court and will step down from power.' That's how a democrat speaks. That's how democrats are. They don't tie themselves to power. And that's why we're in the streets with Carlos Andres Perez today," he said.
    Although a public funeral was held, no state honours were given to the former president.
    The disagreement over his burial pitted Perez's estranged wife who claimed she had the right to take his body home to Venezuela against his long-time mistress and other relatives who insisted Perez would never return, in life or in death, as long as Chavez remained in power.
    A court order prevented his burial in Miami and his body was kept in cold storage at a funeral home for months after death. More recently, however, it was placed in a small crypt at a local cemetery.
    Chavez led an unsuccessful coup attempt against Perez in 1992, when he was a lieutenant-colonel in the Venezuelan Army.
    The attempt brought Chavez to national prominence and Perez fled the country fearing political persecution when Chavez became Venezuela's president through the ballot box in 1998.
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