Ramón José Velásquez Mujica (28 November 1916 – 24 June 2014) was a Venezuelan political figure. He served as President of Venezuela between 1993 and 1994. He is known for having been a historian, journalist, lawyer and politician. At the time of his death, he was a board member of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.

Background and personal life

Velásquez was born in Táchira state, on 28 November 1916. His parents were Ramon Velasquez Ordoñez, a journalist and proofreader for a newspaper and educator Regina Mujica. For his initial studies he was home schooled his parents in his hometown. He completed his primary education in high school in San Cristóbal Simón Bolívar. In 1935 he traveled to Caracas to finish high school at the Liceo Andres Bello, while it disagrees with the Gómez regime. Velásquez did his higher education made at the Central University of Venezuela, receiving a Ph.D. in Social and Political Sciences in 1942 and as Advocate in 1943.

Ramón José Velásquez died at the age of 97 from natural causes.

Writer

Velásquez became a reporter for Últimas Noticias in 1941. Velásquez was the president of El Nacional on two occasions (1964-1968/1979-1981).

As a historian, he had previously subscribed to the usual negative opinions of the Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez, but re-examined them in Confidencias imaginarias de Juan Vicente Gómez (1979). (When became President, he presided over a ceremony renaming Juan Vicente Gómez International Airport in Gómez' honour.) He is the author of numerous books on Venezuela's political history.

Politician

During the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, Velásquez was jailed for a year for his role at the compilation of the Libro negro de la dictadura (Black book of dictatorship). The files of this book helped expose the crimes of the dictatorial period.

In 1958, as Venezuela transitioned to democracy, Velásquez was elected to the Venezuelan Senate for the state of Tachira, and later to the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies for the state of Miranda.

He served as the Secretary of the Presidency during the government of Rómulo Betancourt. After that, he was part of the National Congress. During Rafael Caldera's term at presidency, served as Minister of Communications from 1969 until 1971. From 1984 to 1987 he was President of the Comisión para la Reforma del Estado (COPRE), the Commission on the Reform of the State.

In 1993, as a result of the crisis produced by the impeachment of President Carlos Andrés Pérez, Congress designated him as President of the Republic, finishing the constitutional period in 1994. He served from 5 June 1993 to 2 February 1994. As a highly respected national figure there was general consensus around his name for such a task.

Honours

• Maria Moors Cabot prize (1967)
• Member of the National Academy of History of Venezuela (1968)
• National Prize for Literature (1973, prose category, for La caída del liberalismo amarillo
• Premio Nacional de Historia of Consejo Nacional de la Cultura (CONAC), 1980
• Premio Nacional de Humanidades of CONAC, 1998
• Member of the Academia Venezolana de la Lengua, 2002
• Honorary doctorates from the University of the Andes (Venezuela), University of Carabobo, Rafael Urdaneta University (URU) and the National Experimental University of Táchira (UNET).