Jaime Lusinchi Dies: Former Venezuelan President Dead From Chronic Pulmonary Disease 5 Days Before He Turned 90

Former Venezuelan president Jaime Lusinchi, a surgeon and one-time political prisoner who served a rocky term in office from 1984-1989, died in a Caracas hospital on Wednesday at age 89. One of Lusinchi’s sons, Álvaro, told El Universal that his father had died from complications related to chronic pulmonary disease, for which he had spent several days in intensive care. Born in 1927 in Anzoátegui state, Lusinchi was a longtime member of Venezuela’s Congress before reaching the presidency, having served as a representative and a senator with the centrist Democratic Action party.

The former president got his start in politics as a student at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where he opposed the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez -- a position which saw him jailed and tortured by the government before he escaped into exile, to return upon the fall of the regime. But NDTV notes, Lusinchi’s time as president was marred by soaring inflation and a debt crisis arising in part from spending during the 1970s oil boom, while his administration’s response -- which included price caps on basic goods and expanded state subsidies -- only sent inflation higher, while the value of foreign currency reserves hit bottom.

His post-office years marred his reputation further: the Venezuelan Congress voted in 1991 to condemn him after it was discovered that he had given associates special access to tightly regulated dollars, while he also stood accused of stealing state funds to promote the candidacy of his successor. He was at one point arrested after being stripped of his immunity from prosecution, though courts later ruled that the statute of limitations on his case had run out. In 1999, at the behest of late president Hugo Chávez, the country’s supreme court reversed that decision and ordered his case reviewed, though no new proceedings resulted from it.