Carlos Andrés Pérez (born 1922) served as president of Venezuela and oversaw the nationalization of his country's oil industry. In May 1993 he was impeached on allegations of embezzlement and misuse of public funds. After more than two years of house arrest, Pérez was released in September 1996.

Carlos Andrés Pérez, the son of Antonio and Julia Pérez, was born in 1922 in the Andean town of Rubio in the western state of Táchira, Venezuela. His father, a member of the rural middle class, owned both a pharmacy and a small coffee hacienda. Even as a youth Pérez was devoted to politics. He headed student organizations and in 1935 joined in political demonstrations in Rubio which followed the death of Venezuela's long-time dictator, Juan Vicente Gómez (1909-1935). In 1939 his family moved to Caracas, where he...