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The food riots in Caracas in early 1989, which took place in spite of the
overwhelming popular vote for the then recently inaugurated president Pérez
revealed a certain popular dissatisfaction. Opinion polls have shown that many
Venezuelans felt as though they had little impact on their leaders and the way
that policies were drafted and implemented. The alternatives on either the right
or left of the political spectrum, however, seemed to hold little appeal, and
almost no one desired a return to an authoritarian regime.
It was not until 1989, perhaps as a result of the shock of the food riots and
looting in Caracas that resulted in hundreds killed, that the government of
Carlos Andrés Pérez began to make a concerted effort to move toward a leaner
and more accountable bureaucracy. The Pérez administration adopted
privatization as its new motto; implementation, however, remained a slow,
uncertain, and difficult process.
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