VENEZUELA PRESIDENCY

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 30

VENEZUELA PRESIDENCY

CARACAS, April 27. General Gomez lias been elected President of Venezuela. All political prisoners have been amnested. General Juan Vicente Goir.ez became President in December, 1903, in very dramatic circumstances. President Castro, the *elf-willed despot who had misruled the republic for nine years, having succeeded in embroiling his country with almost every civilised Power, decided in the winter of 1908 to go abroad for his health's sake, and to court the hospitality of some of the European Governments which he had persistently insulted and outraged, leaving the control of the Government in the hands of the Vice-president, General Gomez. He travelled with a large suite and with some etate. His welcome, however, was not enthusiastic. It is believed that his departure on December 13 from France, which was the first European country favoured by his presence, was hastened by the inconvenient restrictions with which the Government, in its assiduous care for the "Restorer's" safety, 'surrounded his movements on French /territory. His reception in Berlin was eoarcely less cold. Meanwhile things were .■happening in Venezuela. A Dutch cruiser seized one of the eight vessels of the Venezuelan navy, and before taking her away to Curacao landed her captain and crew on the Venezuelan coast with a ■written intimation that she would deal in the same way with any of the other seven vessels that might fall into her hands. The immediate result of this drastic measure was a demonstration in Caracas in support of the Government, and a counter-demonstra-tion against it. This was General Gomez's opportunity. Having assumed the Presidential chair" " provisionally," he reconstructed the Cabinet, and invited the United States Government to send warships to Venezuela to maintain order in case of any demonstration in the interests of Castro. He secured the sympathy £JL the European Powers by promising reparation for the mischief wrought by his predecessor. The reign of the "Restorer" was at an end, though some months elapsed before he was forced to realise the fact.