[2] As a young man he was expelled from Venezuela for agitation and moved to Costa Rica where he founded, and led, a number of Communist student groups.

His accomplishments included the declaration of universal suffrage, the institution of social reforms, and securing half of the profits generated by foreign oil companies for Venezuela.

The refugee initiative was the subject of great controversies within his government with the winning side led by Betancourt's secretary of Agriculture, Eduardo Mendoza.

Betancourt identified this potential to play an important historical role, using the knowledge to his nation's advantage transforming Venezuela into a global player.

Oil companies were forced to cede to the demands of labor unions and no longer entitled to make larger profits than the Venezuelan government.

As a result, Betancourt's government generally had full support of the labor unions as the administration openly encouraged workers to organize.

Another notable achievement of Betancourt's first administration include the termination of the concession policy, the initial development of refineries within Venezuela, and tremendous improvement in worker conditions and pay.

However, on 27 November 1948, Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, Marcos Pérez Jiménez and Luis Felipe Llovera Páez launched the 1948 Venezuelan coup d'état and overthrew Gallegos after just ten months in office.

He traveled extensively, living in Cuba, Costa Rica, and Puerto Rico, and remained a leader of an opposition-in-exile to the Perez Jimenez dictatorship.

A beach home outside of San Juan (Puerto Rico) provided a quiet refuge for this work," wrote Franklin Tugwell in his Introduction to the 1978 English publication of Betancourt's book.

The only typewritten copy was among my personal papers and it disappeared with them when a military patrol plundered the house I was living in when the constitutional government was overthrown on 24 November 1948.

When they die they give the command for an ideal of human excellence, obliging those who survive to finish their work," wrote Rómulo Betancourt in the Prologue to the first edition of "Venezuela: Oil and Politics".

Having inherited a well constructed country but with the need to give more education to its people, Betancourt nevertheless managed to return the state to fiscal solvency despite the rock-bottom petroleum prices throughout his presidency.

Considered a radical revolutionary idea at the time by its opponents, but essential to Venezuela's independence and fiscal solvency by a visionary nationalistic Betancourt.

Large road-building, and electrical power programs as the construction of Guri Dam Phase I were carried out, transforming Venezuela into a modernized Latin American nation.

[citation needed] Betancourt also faced determined opposition from extremists and rebellious army units, yet he continued to push for economic and educational reform.

Elements of the left parties then formed the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN), a communist guerrilla army to fight him.

The Venezuelan government took its case against Trujillo to the Organization of American States, turning to diplomacy first over armed response to resolve the political conflict.

The 24 June 1960 attempt, in which the Venezuelan president was badly burned, inflamed world public opinion against Trujillo, who was himself assassinated within a year.

Photos of a wounded but living Betancourt were distributed around the world as proof he survived the assassination attempt that killed his head of security and severely injured the driver, who later died.

11 March 1964 was a day of pride for the people of Venezuela as for the first time the presidential sash passed from one democratically elected chief executive to another.

Regimes disrespectful of human rights, violating their citizens´ freedom, tyrannizing them with the backing of totalitarian political police, should be submitted to a rigorous sanitary cordon and eradicated, through collective pacification, from the Inter-American juridical community"[11] It was during the tense Cuban Missile Crisis, between the United States and Cuba, the relationship between President Kennedy and President Betancourt became closer than ever.

Establishing a direct phone link between the White House and Miraflores (Presidential Palace) since the Venezuelan president had ample experience on dealing, defeating and surviving, actions of Caribbean regimes.

A thesis that continues to be debated among academics and intellectuals who see in Betancourt not an isolationist but a courageous defender of democratic principles in the midst of adversity and ferreous enemies.