Although accused of corruption after leaving office, Lusinchi was popular during his presidency, and was succeeded by a member of his Acción Democrática political party, Carlos Andrés Pérez.

In 1937, at the age of 13, Lusinchi joined the National Democratic Party, organization created by Rómulo Betancourt against the government of Eleazar López Contreras.

After the overthrow of Venezuela's first democratically elected leader, Rómulo Gallegos, by a military-led coup on 24 November 1948, Lusinchi continued carrying out political activities whilst in hiding from the new military-dominated authorities.

After the 1952 election fraud, which dissolved the Civilian-Military Junta and began the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Lusinchi was again captured and imprisoned at the National Security facility.

[2] A month later he was transferred to the Cárcel Modelo (Model Prison) in Caracas, and was released shortly after that, beginning an exile of five years in Argentina, Chile and the United States.

In addition, he struck up friendships with prominent figures in local politics, such as the Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei Montalva and the democratic-socialist leader Salvador Allende.

Therein after the fall of the Pérez Jiménez Government, Lusinchi returned from exile, and joined the National Executive Committee of Acción Democrática as secretary for International Affairs.

The first three years of his presidency were characterized by efforts to achieve economy stability, the paying off of the foreign debts, the reduction of public spending, the implementation of social programs benefiting the people and the promotion of industrial growth.

This led to a dismal situation due to an excessively high government fiscal budget, depleting financial reserves for the payment of debt, an important pledge made during Lusinchi's presidential campaign.

1985 was characterized by a relative social peace and the absence of labor disputes and strikes, in part due to the support of the government by the largest trade union of the country, the Confederation of Workers of Venezuela, which had traditionally been closely linked to Acción Democrática.

In 1987, Lusinchi finally stopped the economic program carried out from the beginning of his term in office, and gave up his attempts to pay off the external debt, control the fiscal deficit and restrain public spending.

However, there occurred currency devaluation, corruption, media criticism and unsatisfactory results from the Presidential Commission for State Reform (COPRE), which was established on 17 December 1984 and whose work encountered the same bureaucratic problems and administrative inefficiency, which it attempted to solve.

As part of that very special event, thousands of people were mobilized to conduct many cultural and religious programs in several different cities, notably Puerto Ordaz, Maracaibo, Mérida and Caracas.

[5] On 13 August 1987, the Colombian navy corvette Caldas sailed into the Gulf of Venezuela, causing a crisis in Colombian-Venezuelan relations that almost led to armed conflict.

In November 1991, the Venezuelan Congress issued a "political and moral condemnation" to be lodged against the former president for his part in economic mismanagement and administrative irregularities that took place during his term.

Then, on 10 August 1993, the Supreme Court decided it had found evidence of actual criminality during its review of charges filed against Lusinchi by the Attorney General's Office, and started proceedings against him.

A trial was opened against the former president, ostensibly for his illegal use of funds belonging to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Institute for Racetracks (INH).

Again in June 2006 however, himself and seven former officials of his government, along with 38 other retired members of the Venezuelan security services DISIP were accused of in some way being guilty of events now known as the Yumare Massacre.