Castro would send troops to Angola via Guyana . Two of the most important actions that highlighted the Betacourt administration are 1) the elections of 1963 that secured a real functioning democracy 2) the creation of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by his minister of energy, Juan Pablo Perez Alonzo in 1960 . Although it did not have much power during its' beginning years, it would be seen as a powerful organization in the years to follow. AD candidate Raul Leoni was elected in 1963 and took office in 1964. Leoni didn't make any radical changes and followed suit with Betacourts' reforms. He did still have to face the influence of Castro. The PCV became so out of control that Leoni was forced to search the Universities of Caracas for members that had broken the law. Things came to a head when the military encountered "a small landing party headed by a Cuban army officer… Machurucuto in the state of Miranda." The situation calmed down and Leoni passed some good agrarian reform laws. The economy under Leoni also proved to be one of the more healthy ones averaging a healthy 5.5% annually . Largely, the Leoni administration was a carry over from the Betacourt reforms. Venezuela demonstrated yet again that it was devoted to democracy in the 1968 elections. The AD was split over candidates, which led to the election of COPEI candidate Rafael Caldera . Venezuela passed the test forming an even stronger democracy when the AD passed over the presidential sash to the opposing party, the COPEI. Caldera filled the government with strictly COPEI members and did not make any effort at coalitions. Caldera began by reversing many of the reforms already put forth in the previous AD administrations. Caldera reinstated the PCV as a legal political party and then claimed that it lowered the guerrilla violence. Yet the opposition maintained that it was due to the reevaluation of diplomacy by Cuba and the SU as a result of the death...
