1. Widely acknowledged as one of the founders of Venezuela's democratic system, one of the main architects of the 1961 Constitution, and a pioneer of the Christian Democratic movement in Latin America, Caldera was President during the second period of civilian democratic rule in a country beleaguered by a history of political violence and military caudillos.
Rafael Caldera's leadership helped to establish Venezuela's reputation as one of the more stable democracies in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century.
Rafael Caldera is remembered as the President who pardoned Hugo Chavez in December 1994, enabling him to gain freedom from prison and later on to run for the Presidency, which he achieved in 1998.
Rafael Caldera Rodriguez, the son of Rafael Caldera Izaguirre and Rosa Sofia Rodriguez Rivero, was born on 24 January 1916, in San Felipe, Venezuela.
Rafael Caldera's mother having died when he was two and a half years-old, Caldera was raised by his maternal aunt Maria Eva Rodriguez Rivero and her husband Tomas Liscano Gimenez.
Rafael Caldera attended elementary school in his native San Felipe and later in Caracas, at the Jesuit-run Catholic school San Ignacio de Loyola, where he completed his secondary education at the age of fifteen.
At the age of nineteen, and after studying the 26 volumes of Andres Bello's collected works, Rafael Caldera published his first book, Andres Bello, a comprehensive analysis of the life and works of Bello's literary, linguistic, legal, historic, philosophical, and political texts.
From this position, Rafael Caldera played a major role in the drafting of Venezuela's first Labor Law, which remained current for more than fifty years until its reform in 1990.
Rafael Caldera worked closely with Caldera, then Venezuela's first ILO correspondent.
Rafael Caldera joined the Venezuelan Federation of Students, which was led by students who had revolted in 1928 against the dictator Juan Vicente Gomez and were known as the Generation of 28.
In 1936, Rafael Caldera founded the National Student Union, the seed of what eventually became the Venezuelan Christian Democratic movement.
Rafael Caldera had a prominent role in the debates on the partial reform of the 1936 Constitution and revisions to the Civil Code, and was a leading voice in the enactment of progressive labor laws.
On 27 October 1945, Rafael Caldera was appointed Solicitor General by Romulo Betancourt, head of the Revolutionary Government Junta that ousted President Isaias Medina Angarita on 18 October 1945.
On 13 January 1946, Rafael Caldera co-founded COPEI, Comite de Organizacion Politica Electoral Independiente, the Christian Democratic Party that grew to become one of the two largest mass political parties in Venezuela.
Rafael Caldera delivered celebrated speeches on the social rights of workers, the social function of private property, agrarian reform, religious freedom, religious education, and the need for direct, popular election of state governors.
In 1952, Rafael Caldera was elected representative to the National Constituent Assembly.
On 3 August 1955, agents of the National Security, a large secret police force led by Pedro Estrada that hunted down opponents and ran notorious concentration camps, threw a bomb into Rafael Caldera's home, endangering the life of his youngest child, then nine months-old.
Rafael Caldera travelled to New York City and was greeted by Romulo Betancourt and Jovito Villalba.
Rafael Caldera lost to Romulo Betancourt and Wolfgang Larrazabal, who came in first and second place respectively.
Rafael Caldera ran for Congress and was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies.
Rafael Caldera came in second place in the 1963 presidential election that Raul Leoni won as candidate of the ruling party.
In December 1968 Rafael Caldera ran for president for the third time.
Ultimately, Rafael Caldera defeated Barrios with 29.1 percent of the vote, a margin of just 32,000 votes.
President Rafael Caldera restored bilateral relations with the Soviet Union and the socialist nations of Eastern Europe, as well as with a number of South American nations that had fallen under military dictatorships, including Argentina, Panama, and Peru.
Rafael Caldera always considered the United States more of an ally than an adversary, yet he still brought Venezuela's new economic strength to bear on their relationship.
Rafael Caldera took advantage of momentous developments in the international oil trade.
Rafael Caldera raised taxes on oil production, nationalized the gas industry, and enacted stringent laws regulating the US oil companies that operated in Venezuela.
In 1971, Rafael Caldera raised the oil profit tax to 70 per cent.
Rafael Caldera dramatically increased the number of educational institutions by doubling the number of public secondary schools and tripling the number of state university colleges and institutes of technology.
On 3 October 1970, after weeks of violent student protests, and reports of weapons and explosive materials hidden inside the university campus, Rafael Caldera intervened Central University of Venezuela in order to protect and safeguard the life of students, professors and university employees.
Rafael Caldera served in the Venezuelan Senate as all former presidents were granted lifelong appointments to the Senate under 1961 Constitution.
In March 1987, Rafael Caldera was invited by Pope John Paul II to deliver a speech before the College of Cardinals to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Papal Encyclical Populorum Progressio.
In June 1989, Rafael Caldera was appointed President of the Bicameral Congress Commission for the Reform of the Constitution.
The most memorable and controversial speeches Rafael Caldera delivered as Senator came in February 1989, at the wake of the bloody riots in Caracas on 27 February, known as "Caracazo," and in February, 4 of 1992, after the failed military coup by Hugo Chaves.
Rafael Caldera urged students to reject violent paths and search for answers to the crisis without abandoning the principles and mechanisms of democracy.
In 1983, Rafael Caldera became eligible again and was chosen by his party COPEI to run against Jaime Lusinchi, the candidate of the opposition party AD, who won the presidential election.
In 1993, Rafael Caldera ran for president as an independent candidate, with the support of a new party, National Convergence, which allowed members and sympathizers of COPEI to support his candidacy.
Rafael Caldera received the support from a coalition of 17 small parties dismissed by opponents as "chiripas".
Rafael Caldera won the presidency with almost 400.000 votes over his closest opponent Claudio Fermin, the candidate of AD.
President Rafael Caldera insisted on making corruption the central theme of the VII Ibero-American Summit of Heads State and Government, hosted by Venezuela in 1997.
The renowned Venezuelan economist Moises Naim, a former member of Perez' ministerial cabinet, and an outspoken critic of Rafael Caldera, argues that despite these efforts, Rafael Caldera's administration was however "particularly ineffectual in bringing to justice the many regulators and bankers responsible for the country's massive banking crisis".
Notwithstanding federal budget limitations, Rafael Caldera's administration developed major infrastructure projects, including two water dams the Macagua II in Guayana and the Taguaza in Caracas; the regional central aqueduct in Valencia; the Merida-El Vigia superhighway and portions of the Centro-Occidental, Jose Antonio Paez, and Romulo Betancourt highways.
At the beginning of his second term, Rafael Caldera pardoned the military officers responsible for the failed coups of 4 February and 27 November 1992, a policy aimed at pacifying the insurgent military force.
Rafael Caldera pioneered the introduction of Christian Democracy into Latin America.
Rafael Caldera explained that Christian Democrats understand democracy in the light of Christian philosophy, and Christianity in its living democratic manifestation.
Rafael Caldera saw it as a specific political alternative to laissez-faire capitalism and Marxist socialism.
Rafael Caldera rejected Marxist ideas of dialectical materialism and class struggle, but he was convinced that Capitalism without social safeguards produces a grossly inequitable society.
Rafael Caldera published several books and countless booklets and speeches on Christian Democratic ideals, including Ideario: La Democracia Cristiana en America Latina, Justicia Social Internacional y Nacionalismo Latinoamericano, El Bien Comun Universal y la Justicia Social Internacional, and Reflexiones de la Rabida.
Rafael Caldera describes the concept of integral human development, the fundamental value of labor, the social function and forms of property, the role of the State in social life, the principle of subsidiarity, the defense of the rights of social groups, and the concept of international social justice.
Rafael Caldera viewed these principles as a set of political ideas committed to social justice and inspired by the Catholic social teaching.
Long viewed as the most principled and legally minded of Venezuela's presidents, Rafael Caldera was a man of learning, and an accomplished essayist and orator.
The distinction Rafael Caldera most cherished was the Honorary Professor award with which his alma mater, Central University of Venezuela, unanimously honored him in 1976.
In 1953, Rafael Caldera was elected to the Venezuelan National Academy of Political and Social Sciences.
Rafael Caldera devoted his induction speech, "El lenguaje como vinculo social y la integracion latinoamericana" to language as a social link for Latin American integration.
Rafael Caldera wrote extensively on key personalities and events in Venezuela's history.
Rafael Caldera's book Bolivar siempre is a collection of essays on the timeliness of Simon Bolivar's political ideals.
Especially notable is the monograph Rafael Caldera dedicated to the analysis of Romulo Betancourt's foundational role in the construction of Venezuela's democracy, "La parabola vital de Romulo Betancourt".
The various texts Rafael Caldera devoted to reflections on the intersection between faith and public service are key to understand the spiritual drive behind his unwavering commitment to political and intellectual pursuits.
Rafael Caldera was known for living simply and eschewing luxuries, and for being an honorable public servant in a country where corruption is pervasive.
In 1999, when President Chavez called for a constituent assembly, Rafael Caldera protested against the violation of the 1961 Constitution.
In 1999, Rafael Caldera published his last book, De Carabobo a Puntofijo: Los Causahabientes, a political history of Venezuela from 1830 to 1958.
Gravely affected by Parkinson's disease, Rafael Caldera gradually withdrew from public view and died in his home on Christmas Eve 2009.
Mrs Rafael Caldera died a little more than a year after her husband, on 9 February 2011.