COUNTRY'S OWNER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

COUNTRY'S OWNER

VENEZUELAN DICTATOR A REMARKABLE CAREER General .Juan Vicente Gomez, President and Dictator of Venezuela, recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of his seizure of power. Citizens of Caracas, capital of Venezuela, do not see much of their President. He dislikes public functions and spends as much of his time as possible at Maracay, 77 miles away, where, beside a lake on his great model farm, he sits in a rocking chair under a giant rubber tree and holds court. But his people are proud of him. Venezuela has a balanced budget, and a surplus in the national treasury. Her money is said to be the soundest in the world. Not a single foreigner owns a Venezuelan Government bond. There is practically no unemployment. Farmers pay no land taxes at all and may borrow up to 50 per cent of the value of their land from a government farm bank. The country, with nearly 4000 miles of good roads, claims the finest highway system in Latin America. Hut this record dictatorship" is not all due to th-3 personal virtue of Dictator Gomez. In 1917 oil began to gush in Venezuela in unbelievable quantities. Last year more oil than anywhere else outside the United States and Russia spouted from Venezuelan wells, and every gallon of it pays a 7 per cent to 10 per cent royalty to the government. Dictator Gomez is not only the richest man in Venezuela, but for all practical purposes owns the country. All attempts to overthrow his Government are instantly suppressed. Venezuela's pride,, her highway system, has been built largely by the labour of political prisoners.