Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón (24 July 1857 – 17 December 1935) was a Venezuelan military general, politician and de facto ruler of Venezuela from 1908 until his death in 1935.

He became Castro's vice president and, in 1902, head of the military, responsible for suppressing several major revolts against the government in the battle of Ciudad Bolivar on 21 July 1903.

As president, Gómez managed to deflate Venezuela's staggering debt by granting concessions to foreign oil companies after the discovery of petroleum in Lake Maracaibo in 1914.

Though he used the money to launch an extensive public works program, he also received generous kickbacks, increasing his personal fortune enormously.

Gómez spent the last year of his term on a military campaign, and José Gil Fortoul served as de facto acting president.

Though he was reelected by Congress, he declined to return to the capital, and Juan Bautista Pérez assumed the presidency, though Gómez remained the final authority in the country.

Members included Rómulo Betancourt, Jóvito Villalba, Joaquin Gabaldon Marquez, Juan Oropeza, Raúl Leoni, Andrés Eloy Blanco, Miguel Otero Silva, Pedro Sotillo, Isaac J Pardo, Juan Bautista Fuenmayor, Germán Suárez Flamerich, and Gustavo Machado.

The first one was Dionisia Gómez Bello, with whom he had seven children: José Vicente, Josefa, Alí, Flor de María, Graciela, Servilia, and Gonzalo.

His insistence on road construction and the creation of jobs in the then-new oil industry promoted population mobility and more frequent social contact among Venezuelans of different regions – previously a rare occurrence – which permanently rooted a sense of national unity in the country.

[6] Ironically, the elimination of the caudillo problem and the choosing of Eleazar López Contreras as his last minister of war and marine paved the way to the emergence of modern democracy; see Generation of 1928.

He repaid all foreign and internal debt using excess reserves; his fiscal conservatism helped the country get through the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, and led to an increase in the value of the bolívar to the point of becoming hard currency.

[citation needed] Although cordial and simple in manner and speech, his ruthless crushing of opponents through his secret police earned him the reputation of a tyrant.

He exercised control over the neighborhood caudillos ("bosses") and the Roman Catholic Church, launched many public works programs, and prepared a 'green' administration.

[8] A staunch anticommunist, Gómez viewed both communism and trade unions as a threat to regime and suppressed both, denouncing the former as a "plague" and the latter as "a tool of the devil.