Medina Angarita, Isaías (1897–1953)

Isaías Medina Angarita (b. 6 July 1897; d. 15 September 1953), president of Venezuela (1941–1945). In 1941, Medina became the hand-picked successor of President Eleázar López Contreras, whom he had served briefly as minister of war in 1936. Medina, who entered the Military School in 1912, represented the new professional army officers who emerged during the Juan Vicente Gómez era (1908–1935). During his military career he taught at the Military School, served as secretary to the Ministry of War and Marine, and headed military delegations to Ecuador (1930) and the United States (1940).

As president, Medina introduced a number of political reforms. Constitutional revisions instituted direct elections of national deputies and suffrage for women in municipal elections. Medina also introduced the first income tax law. In 1943, a petroleum law gave the government higher revenues through new taxes and royalties, and the petroleum companies gained more security. An agrarian reform law of 1945 addressed some of the nation's basic rural labor problems. Medina had success in negotiating border settlements with Colombia and Great Britain. In 1943 he headed his own party, the Venezuelan Democratic Party (Partido Democrático Venezolano), which advocated moderate reforms. In October 1945, a military-civilian coalition overthrew Medina.

See alsoVenezuela: Venezuela since 1830 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nora Bustamente, Isaías Medina Angarita (1985).

Tulio Chiossone, El decenio democrático inconcluso (1989).

Judith Ewell, Venezuela: A Century of Change (1984).

José Eduardo Guzmán Pérez, Medina Angarita: Democracia y negación (1985).

Isaías Medina Angarita, Gobierno y época del presidente Isaías Medina Angarita, 17 vols. (1987).

Additional Bibliography

Battaglini, Oscar. El medinismo: Modernización, crisis política y golpe de estado. Caracas, Venezuala: Monte Avila Editores Latinoamericana: Dirección de Cultura, Universidad Central de Venezuala, 1997.

Ramírez López, Eduardo, and Constantino Quero Morales. Isaías Medina Angarita: Presidente de la Transformación. Caracas, Venezuela: Universidad Católica Bello, 2005.

                                  Winthrop R. Wright