Luis Enrique Oberto González (19 August 1928 – 8 August 2022) was a Venezuelan banker and politician who served in several high-ranking positions within the

government of Venezuela Venezuela is a federal presidential republic. The chief executive is the President of Venezuela who is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the President. Legislative power is vested in the National Assem ...

. A member of COPEI, Oberto was a member of the

Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () was the lower house of Venezuela's legislative under its 1961 constitution; the Venezuelan Senate was the upper house. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly o ...

from 1979 to 1999, serving as the president of the Chamber of Deputies from 1990 until 1994. Oberto also served as the

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

and the in the government of

Rafael Caldera Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( (); 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009), twice elected the president of Venezuela, served for two five-year terms (1969–1974 and 1994–1999), becoming the longest serving democratically elected leade ...

. He then served in a number of academic positions after leaving politics.

Early life and financial career

Oberto was born on 19 August 1928. In 1951, he graduated from the

Central University of Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela (Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in L ...

with a degree in

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

. In 1969, newly-elected president

appointed Oberto as ; in this position, the

U.S. Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

considered him to be one of Venezuela's most senior government officials. From 1969 until 1972, Oberto served on the

board of governors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...

of the

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America, and serving as the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribb ...

, and he also served as the principal director of the

Central Bank of Venezuela The Central Bank of Venezuela ( es, Banco Central de Venezuela, BCV) is the central bank of Venezuela. It maintains a fixed exchange rate for the Venezuelan bolívar and since 1996 is the governing agent of the Venezuelan Clearing House System ...

from 1970 to 1972. In 1972, Caldera appointed Oberto as

. In this role, Oberto oversaw the expansion of the Venezuelan oil industry; Oberto increased fiscal participation in oil and led the

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

of Venezuela's oil and gas reserves. As a result of Oberto's policies while minister, the Venezuelan economy had an "average growth of 5%, with peaks of 7.6% in 1970 and 6.9% in 1973", while the average annual

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...

was 3.3%. Oberto resigned as Minister of Finance in 1974 following the election of President

Carlos Andrés Pérez Carlos Andrés Pérez Rodríguez (27 October 1922 – 25 December 2010) also known as CAP and often referred to as '' El Gocho'' (due to his Andean origins), was a Venezuelan politician and the president of Venezuela from 12 March 1974 to 12 M ...

. Following his resignation, Oberto served in several governmental and business roles. In 1974, Oberto served as a member of the Presidential Commission for Oil Reversal, and later that year, he became an advisor for the Inter-American Development Bank. From 1974 to 1978, he was also on the board of directors of the Central Mortgage Bank.

Political career

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

, Oberto, a member of COPEI, was elected to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

where he subsequently served for the following twenty years. During his tenure in the legislature, Oberto also served in several high-ranking positions. In the late-1980s, he was a member of the Commission for the Reform of the State, a presidential commission which sought to reform the Venezuelan government. In 1990, Oberto was elected the president of the Chamber of Deputies, a position he would hold until 1994. In 1993, Oberto briefly served as the interim president of the

Congress of Venezuela The Congress of the Republic, also known as the National Congress, represented the Venezuelan Legislative Branch until 1999. It had a bicameral composition: a Chamber of Senators (or Senate) and a Chamber of Deputies. The last president of the Ch ...

, which consisted of both the Chamber of Deputies and the

Senate of Venezuela The Senate of Venezuela was the upper house of Venezuela's legislature under its 1961 constitution. Under the 1999 constitution, the bicameral system was replaced by the unicameral National Assembly of Venezuela. However, since 1999 the former cham ...

. Oberto left parliament in 1999. In 1995, Oberto drafted the Organic Criminal Procedure Code (COPP), a reform of Venezuela's criminal justice system, which he believed was too "

inquisitorial An inquisitorial system is a legal system in which the court, or a part of the court, is actively involved in investigating the facts of the case. This is distinct from an adversarial system, in which the role of the court is primarily that of an ...

". The COPP reforms were later adopted in 1999 by the government of

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republ ...

Later life

After leaving the legislature, Oberto held several academic positions. In 1999, he became a professor at the Central University of Venezuela. From 1998 until 2000, Oberto served as the president of the National Academy of Economic Sciences, an institution he founded in 1982. Oberto served as a member of the board of directors of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration from 2000 to 2003. At some point, Oberto was also the vice president of the . Oberto died in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

on 8 August 2022, eleven days before his 94th birthday.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberto, Luis Enrique 1928 births 2022 deaths People from Miranda (state) Central University of Venezuela alumni Central University of Venezuela faculty Planning ministers of Venezuela Finance ministers of Venezuela Copei politicians Members of the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies Presidents of the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies Place of birth missing 20th-century Venezuelan politicians Venezuelan bankers Inter-American Development Bank Venezuelan engineers