Second presidency of Rafael Caldera

More than seventy thousand medium and small companies went bankrupt, fundamentally due to the exchange rate regime imposed by the government, which made it difficult to obtain the currency to acquire intermediate goods.

Caldera also had to handle a vertiginous inflationary spiral and a parallel reduction of the Forex reserves, employees generously for the support of the bolívar in front of the U.S. dollar.

On 27 June, he announced the temporary suspension of some constitutional guarantees, fundamentally related to the private property and the free economic activity, to allow control of the exchange market, the banking system and prices by the State.

Although Caldera promised during his campaign never to accept the help of the International Monetary Fund, his government had to rescind the vow, due to the economic crisis and bad management.

In 1997, a tripartite commission, consisting of representatives of industrialists, workers and the Government, assumed the reform of the regime of social benefits, and the deep revision of the labor law.

Also during the second Caldera presidency, the process of Apertura Petrolera began with the purpose of increasing the involvement of the private sector, national and international, in the operation, exploration and refinement of petroleum and natural gas.