Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo (13 December 1903 – 3 September 1979), was a prominent

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

and

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

primarily responsible for the inception and creation of

OPEC The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, ) is a cartel of countries. Founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), it has, since 1965, been headqua ...

, along with Saudi Arabian minister

Abdullah Tariki Abdullah Tariki (19 March 1919–7 September 1997) (Arabic: عبدالله الطريقي), also known as Red Sheikh, was a Saudi politician and government official. He was the first Saudi oil minister appointed by King Saud, and co-founder of Or ...

Early life and education

Born in

Caracas, Venezuela 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 ...

, Pérez Alfonzo was initially a medical student before pursuing a PhD in political and social sciences at 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 ...

Political career

Gallegos administration and subsequent exile

Pérez Alfonzo helped found the political party Democratic Action (AD;

Acción Democrática Democratic Action ( es, Acción Democrática, AD) is a Venezuelan social democratic and centre-left political party established in 1941. The party played an important role in the early years of Venezuelan democracy, leading the government durin ...

). As Minister of Development during the first democratic government of Venezuela, the short-lived administration of

Rómulo Gallegos Rómulo Ángel del Monte Carmelo Gallegos Freire (2 August 1884 – 5 April 1969) was a Venezuelan novelist and politician. For a period of nine months during 1948, he governed as the first freely elected president in Venezuela's history. He was ...

(1947–1948), he was responsible for increasing oil revenues for the country by raising taxes through what later became known worldwide as the 50/50 formula. Initially, the Seven Sisters (the dominant Anglo-American oil companies), responded to the 50/50 law by threatening to ramp up production elsewhere while slowing down production in Venezuela. Perez Alfonso subsequently encouraged other governments to adopt the 50/50 formula, which they ultimately did. The 50/50 formula was the global norm until 1970. With the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President

by the military in November 1948, Perez Alfonzo obtained political asylum in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

after spending 9 months in jail. He moved to Mexico for financial reasons, where he resided until the return of democracy in 1958, when the democratically elected President Rómulo Betancourt called him back to government service to finish the job he had begun under the presidency of Gallegos, this time as Minister of Energy. During the years he spent in Washington he studied the activities of the oil industry worldwide and, in particular, the

Texas Railroad Commission The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC; also sometimes called the Texas Railroad Commission, TRC) is the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and sur ...

(TRC), which served to reinforce his ideas about creating

, further developing his thoughts about conservation and stabilization of petroleum production and the defense of oil prices.

Betancourt administration and OPEC creation

As Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons during the second democratic government of Venezuela of president Rómulo Betancourt (1959–1964), he was responsible for the creation of

(

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC, ) is a cartel of countries. Founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela), it has, since 1965, been headquart ...

) for the purpose of rationalizing and thereby increasing oil prices in the world market. Triggered by a 1960 law instituted by US President

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War I ...

that forced quotas for Venezuelan oil and favored Canada and Mexico's oil industries, Perez Alfonzo (also known as the Father of OPEC) reacted seeking an alliance with oil producing Arab nations to protect the continuous autonomy and profitability of Venezuela's oil (among other reasons), establishing a strong link between the South American nation and the Middle East region that survives to this day. His extensive notes of the TRC methods for regulation of production to maximize recovery served him well both in Venezuela and later when he took them translated into Arabic to the Cairo meeting that served as launching platform for OPEC, where

Wanda Jablonski Wanda Jablonski (23 August 1920, in Czechoslovakia – 28 January 1992, in New York City) was an American journalist who covered the global petroleum industry. She was called "the most influential oil journalist of her time" in Daniel Yergin's ''T ...

introduced him to then minister of petroleum of Saudi Arabia,

, co-founder of OPEC.

Personal life

He was an ascetic vegetarian.

Legacy and death

After the 1973 oil crisis, the brief period of economic prosperity for Venezuela was relatively short lived. In 1976 Pérez Alfonzo gave an intuitive warning about what economists now call the " natural resource curse": ''"Ten years from now, twenty years from now, you will see, oil will bring us ruin... It is the devil's excrement."'' This was the case during the "

1980s oil glut The 1980s oil glut was a serious surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following the 1970s energy crisis. The world price of oil had peaked in 1980 at over US$35 per barrel (equivalent to $ per barrel in dollars, when adjusted for inf ...

". OPEC member countries were not adhering strictly to their assigned quotas, and once again oil prices plummeted. Pérez Alfonzo died in Washington, D.C., at the

Georgetown University Hospital MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is one of the Washington, D.C. area's oldest academic teaching hospitals. It is a not-for-profit, acute care teaching and research facility located in the Georgetown neighborhood of the Northwest Quadrant ...

on 3 September 1979, having succumbed to

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...

. He was 75 years old.

El Vigía The Alberto Adriani Municipality () (better known as El Vigia) is one of the 23 municipalities () that makes up the Venezuelan state of Mérida and, according to a 2007 population estimate by the National Institute of Statistics of Venezuela, th ...

Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo Airport Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo Airport , is an airport serving El Vigía, a city in Mérida state in Venezuela. It opened in 1991, and was named for the Venezuelan politician Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo (1903–1979). The runway length includes a di ...

was named in his honor in 1991. Since 1998, the Orden Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo (Order of Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo) is the Venezuelan award of state given to those who contribute to works related to mining, petroleum and energy.

Books

* ''Petróleo: jugo de la tierra''. Caracas: Editorial Arte, 1961. * ''La Dinámica del petróleo en el progreso de Venezuela''. Caracas: Central University of Venezuela, 1965. * ''Petróleo de vida o muerte'' (debate with

Arturo Uslar Pietri Arturo Uslar Pietri (16 May 1906 in Caracas – 26 February 2001) was a Venezuelan intellectual, historian, writer, television producer, and politician. Life Born on 16 May 1906 in Caracas, Venezuela, his parents were generalSantos Himiob ...

). Caracas: Editorial Arte, 1966. * ''El pentágono petrolero: la política nacionalista de defensa y conservación del petroleo''. Caracas: Revista Política, 1967. * ''¿Hasta cuándo los abusos de La Electricidad?: informe sobre el caso Guarenas''. Guarenas: Municipal Council, 1969. * ''Petróleo y dependencia''. Caracas: Síntesis Dos Mil, 1971. * ''Hundiéndonos en el excremento del diablo''. Caracas: Editorial Lisbona, 1976. * ''El desastre'' (with Domingo Alberto Rangel and Pedro Duno). Valencia: Vadell Hermanos, 1976. * ''Alternativas'' (with Iván Loscher). Caracas: Garbizu & Todtmann Editores, 1976. * ''Venezuela y el petróleo''. Caracas: Centro Gumilla, 1976.

Notes

References

* Fundación Polar (1997), Diccionario de Historia de Venezuela,

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 th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez Alfonzo, Juan Pablo 1903 births 1979 deaths People from Caracas Venezuelan diplomats Oil ministers OPEC people Democratic Action (Venezuela) politicians Government ministers of Venezuela 20th-century Venezuelan lawyers Central University of Venezuela faculty Central University of Venezuela alumni Venezuelan political scientists 20th-century political scientists Planning ministers of Venezuela