Page "Juan Vicente Gómez" Paragraph 10

Former Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt said in his book Venezuela: Oil and Politics that "(...) Gomez was something more than a local despot, he was the instrument of foreign control of the Venezuelan economy, the ally and servant of powerful outside interests.

" This is in reference to Royal Dutch Shell and Standard Oil's appeasement of the dictator in return for exploration rights to the country's oil fields.