Ramón J. Velásquez | Ramón J. Velásquez was jailed multiple times in the 1950s for his opposition to the Venezuelan dictatorship of General Marcos Perez Jimenez. One of his arrests was for coauthoring The Black Book of the Dictatorship, a condemning account of the government’s human rights violations. In 1993, as a result of the institutional crisis produced by the impeachment of the President Carlos Andrés Pérez, the Venezuelan Congress designated him president of the Republic. He has also been a senator, congressional deputy, minister of communication, and cabinet secretary.
