Venezuela during World War I

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During World War I, Venezuela maintained a position of neutrality in the four years of the conflict during the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez. Por its position, his government was pressured and threatened by the conflict belligerants, and Gómez was accused of having pro-German sympathies. Gómez used the position of Victorino Márquez Bustillos as provisional president, in practice a "prime minister", to refuse to discuss changing his stance.^[1][2]

Despite the neutrality of gomecismo during the conflict, there were Venezuelans that fought in World War I. While the majority of them served in the French Foreign Legion, there were exceptions that enlisted in the Ottoman or German armies. Several of them were condecorated for their service.^[3]

After the surrender of the German Empire, the Caracas population celebrated in the streets the end of war on 15 November 1918. University students, journalists and writers participated in the demonstrations, which passed in front of the headquarters of the legations of France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy and the United States and headed to Bolívar Square. Although the prefect of Caracas assured Vicente Gómez that the demonstrators consisted only of "boys, men of the people, drivers", among others, the demonstration was dissolved by the police and its leaders were arrested by order of Juan Vicente Gómez.^[4] The same month the student and dissident Gustavo Machado leads a demonstration in favor of Belgium that sought to condemn the pro-German attitude assumed by Juan Vicente Gómez.^[5]

See also

• Venezuela during World War II

References

Bibliography

• Pérez Jurado, Carlos (1999). Muerto por Francia (in Spanish). Caracas: Talleres de Italgráfica. OCLC 951606690.