<P> In 1958, a new government, again included Pérez Alfonso, devised a plan for the international oil cartel that would become OPEC . In 1973, Venezuela voted to nationalize its oil industry outright, effective January 1, 1976, with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) presiding over a number of holding companies . In subsequent years, Venezuela built a vast refining and marketing system in the US and Europe . </P> <P> During Pérez Jimenez' dictatorship from 1952 to 1958, Venezuela enjoyed remarkably high GDP growth, so that in the late 1950s Venezuela's real GDP per capita almost reached that of West Germany . In 1950, Venezuela was the world's 4th largest wealthiest nation per capita However, from 1958 / 1959 onward, Romulo Betancourt (president from 1959 to 1964) inherited an enormous internal and external debt caused by rampant public spending during the dictatorship . Nevertheless, he managed to balance Venezuela's public budget and initiate an unsuccessful agrarian reform . </P> <P> Buoyed by a strong oil sector in the 1960s and 1970s, Venezuela's governments were able to maintain social harmony by spending fairly large amounts on public programs including health care, education, transport, and food subsidies . Literacy and welfare programs benefited tremendously from these conditions . Because of the oil wealth, Venezuelan workers "enjoyed the highest wages in Latin America ." This situation was reversed when oil prices collapsed during the 1980s . </P> <P> When world oil prices collapsed in the 1980s, the economy contracted and inflation levels (consumer price inflation) rose, remaining between 6 and 12% from 1982 to 1986, The inflation rate peaked in 1989 at 84%, the year the capital city of Caracas suffered from rioting during the Caracazo following the cut of government spending and the opening of markets by President Carlos Andrés Pérez . After Pérez initiated such liberal economic policies and made Venezuelan markets more free, Venezuela's GDP went from a - 8.3% decline in 1989 to growing 4.4% in 1990 and 9.2% in 1991, though wages remained low and unemployment was high among Venezuelans . </P>

In the early 1980s venezuela was the richest country in latin america because of