His government's secret police, the Dirección de Seguridad Nacional (National Security Service), suppressed criticism and imprisoned those who opposed his rule.

Following massive public demonstrations in support of democratic reforms, Pérez was deposed in a coup perpetrated by disgruntled sectors within the Armed Forces of Venezuela on 23 January 1958.

Pérez was then exiled to the Dominican Republic, later Miami, United States and afterwards went on to settle in Spain under the Franco regime's protection.

Pérez Jiménez attended school in his home town and in Colombia, and in 1934, he graduated from the Military academy of Venezuela, at the top of his class.

In 1945, Pérez Jiménez participated in a coup that helped install the founder of the Democratic Action, Rómulo Betancourt, as President of the Revolutionary Government Junta.

Fears of cuts in pay for soldiers and a lack of modernized army equipment led Pérez Jiménez and Carlos Delgado Chalbaud to stage another coup in 1948.

On 2 December 1952, it released "final" results that showed the pro-junta "Independent Electoral Front" (FEI) winning a majority of assembly seats.

Soon afterward, it enacted a constitution that gave the president virtually unlimited powers to take measures he deemed necessary to protect national security, peace and order.

During a commemorative ceremony in Nuevo Circo, Caracas, hundreds of people waved handkerchiefs during a minute of silence asked in his honor.

"[10][11] In January 1958 there was a general uprising, leading to the 1958 Venezuelan coup d'état that deposed Pérez; with rioting in the streets, he left the country, paving the way for the establishment of democracy in Venezuela.

The 1959–63 extradition of Pérez, related to Financiadora Administradora Inmobiliaria, S.A., one of the largest development companies in South America, and other business connections, is considered by scholars to be a classic study in the precedent for enforcement of administrative honesty in Latin American countries.

His political legacy known perezjimenismo was upheld by the Cruzada Cívica Nacionalista (CCN; Nationalist Civic Crusade) party, which held seats in Congress from 1968 to 1978.

In recent years there has been a revival of perezjimenismo and the New National Ideal, with numerous groups revising and upholding the legacy of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.

The documentary film Tiempos de dictadura (English: Times of dictatorship), directed by Carlos Oteyza [es], focuses on his dictatorship, from the 1948 coup d'état against President Rómulo Gallegos and the human rights violations committed by the Seguridad Nacional (including censorship, arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings) to the public works and lavish carnivals promoted by the oil boom.