Rafael Caldera

Rafael Antonio Caldera Rodríguez ( ; 24 January 1916 – 24 December 2009) was a Venezuelan politician and academician who was the 46th and 51st president of Venezuela from 1969 to 1974 and again from 1994 to 1999, thus becoming the longest serving democratically elected politician to govern the country in the twentieth century. Widely acknowledged as one of the founders of Venezuela's democratic system, one of the main architects of the 1961 Constitution, and a pioneer of the Christian Democratic movement in Latin America, Caldera was President during the second period of civilian democratic rule in a country beleaguered by a history of political violence and military caudillos.

His leadership helped to establish Venezuela's reputation as one of the more stable democracies in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century.

He is also remembered as the President who pardoned Hugo Chávez in December 1994, enabling him to gain freedom from prison and later on to run for the Presidency, which he achieved in 1998. Provided by Wikipedia