Unison in Revolution

After years of election fixing and military oppression, the coup d’état against Marcos Pérez Jiménez began in the late 1950s. Not only was this event noteworthy for the overthrow of an oppressive dictator, it was also the first large-scale example of multiple political factions working together. Both the Democratic Republican Union and the Communist Party came together in order to unite against Jiménez. What little amount was left of the press uncontrolled by Jiménez was fairly loyal to the Communist Party at the time. The Communist Party created a manifesto against Jiménez’s dictatorship. When the coup started to become a reality, even some of Jiménez’s closest officers began turning on him. While he remained in control of most of the military, he was losing control of his control rapidly. He employed his state police against those that were suspected of being revolutionaries, although this only added more fuel to the opposition. After a revolutionary attack on Jiménez, he quickly fled the country to the Dominican Republic.

Even though his side was technically able to withstand the coup, the revolution was quickly gaining support. Jiménez recognized that the odds were becoming increasingly unfavorable, so his best option was to flee the country. This was a huge victory not only for the opposition parties, but for the political climate of Venezuela as a whole. This is an excellent example of political parties working in unison rather than division. This was also representative of Latin America as a region during this time period. The people of Latin America were growing tired of the oppression of dictatorships such as election fixing, restricting of the media, and police brutality. The Venezuelan people and political parties excelled in their coup d’état by working in unison to overthrow Jiménez and implement democracy.