Caldera Convergencia — banking crisis, Agenda Venezuela, Chávez pardoned

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Second Caldera presidency navigating the 1994 banking collapse and the failure of Pacto de Punto Fijo's two-party system. Four doctrinal pillars: (a) Banking crisis 1994 — Banco Latino failed January 1994 days before inauguration; 17 further banks required intervention by year-end; FOGADE bailout + BCV lending reached ~15% GDP; capital controls and exchange-rate board (Régimen de Cambio) imposed June 1994 to March 1996; suspended constitutional economic guarantees via state of emergency. (b) Agenda Venezuela (April 1996) — IMF-backed stabilisation reversal of Caldera's campaign promises; VAT reintroduced; fuel-price rises; wage-price freeze relaxation; multiple-exchange regime unified; $1.4B IMF EFF. (c) Chávez pardon — March 1994 Caldera released Chávez and other MBR-200 golpistas via dismissal (sobreseimiento); rehabilitated him politically; Chávez founded MVR (Movimiento V República) 1997 and won December 1998 presidency. (d) Apertura petrolera — PDVSA association contracts with foreign majors for heavy-crude Orinoco and marginal fields 1992-97; maximum commercial opening of the oil sector. Stated school: democrat-Christian pragmatism + reluctant Washington-Consensus turn. Left-right: centre-right economic after Agenda Venezuela; socially centrist. Popularity: December 1993 won 30.5% in four-way race breaking AD/COPEI duopoly; approval dropped into 20s during banking crisis and Agenda Venezuela; December 1998 Chávez (MVR-Polo Patriótico) won 56.2% vs Salas Römer 39.97% — terminal collapse of the Punto Fijo system. Coherence: trade campaign anti-IMF rhetoric and AD-COPEI normalisation for banking-system rescue, fiscal-orthodox turnaround, and — via the Chávez pardon — the political succession that buried the old order.