[citation needed] Eduardo Mendoza obtained a degree in agricultural engineering from Argentina's National University of La Plata in 1941.

[citation needed] On the eve of 18 October 1945, he was awakened at home by a commission from the Revolutionary Governmental Junta offering him the position of Minister of Agriculture in the new government of Rómulo Betancourt deposing General Isaias Medina Angarita from power for refusing to grant Venezuelans universal suffrage.

Betancourt, a socialist-democratic leader who had previously been a staunch communist, appointed Mendoza on the basis of his scientific research and academic credentials.

The facts and subject of Mendoza's resignation have been widely studied and discussed in Venezuelan academic and journalistic circles as an example of principle.

Mendoza was compared by Venezuelan president Ramón José Velásquez to the historic politician from the Roman Republic Cato.

[9] In the 1950s, during the military dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Mendoza played a role as part of the underground resistance movement.

Specifically, he was part of the civilian leadership that organized the general strike that led to the downfall of the dictator and the restoration of Venezuelan democracy.

[citation needed] He served as a director of Caracas' central park, Parque del Este, and as a founding member of the Universidad de Oriente.

His business organization, "El Grupo Mendoza" became the largest industrial conglomerate in the 1970s encompassing everything from cement, construction, manufacturing, heavy machinery, paint, paper mills, animal feed, banking, and insurance to ownership of General Motors of Venezuela.