A gifted orator known for his bushy sideburns and flashy suits, Perez nationalised Venezuela's oil industry and the holdings of US iron-ore companies. At the same time, he secured a vocal role for Venezuela in Latin American affairs, portending, in some ways, current President Hugo Chavez's more assertive foreign policy.

In his first term, Perez re-established ties with Cuba and donated a ship to Bolivia, in support of the landlocked nation's aspiration to regain sea access. He opposed the right-wing Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua and encouraged Omar Torrijos, Panama's leftist military leader, in his effort to gain sovereignty over the Panama Canal.

Cultivating an independent streak that sometimes put him at odds with Washington, he tried to strengthen the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Venezuela was a founding member. With that goal in mind, he bought a full-page ad in The New York Times in 1974 to publish a letter to President Gerald Ford.

''The establishment of OPEC was a direct consequence of the developed countries' use of a policy of outrageously low prices for our raw materials as a weapon of economic oppression,'' Perez wrote.

Perez was born the 11th of 12 children to coffee planter parents near the western border with Colombia. He studied law in Caracas and in 1948 married his first cousin, Blanca Rodriguez, with whom he had six children.

He was imprisoned that year for his opposition to a military coup and went into exile in 1949, roaming between Colombia, Cuba and Costa Rica, where he worked as editor of the newspaper La Republica.

With the establishment of Venezuelan democratic rule in 1958, he became a rising star in the government of President Romulo Betancourt. As interior minister, he oversaw a counterinsurgency against Cuban-backed guerillas. Later, at the helm of the Democratic Action Party, he mounted his successful 1973 bid for the presidency.

That five-year term was marked by the rise of new fortunes in the private sector. Business deals were said to be discussed in the mansion belonging to his mistress, Cecilia Matos.

After his departure from office in 1979 and the bust in the 1980s that shook Venezuela's economy, Perez returned to power in 1989 following a campaign that demonised multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Yet soon after taking office, Perez put in place an austerity program that included a $4.5 billion loan from the IMF. He announced spending cuts and raised petrol prices, triggering the chaotic episode in February 1989 called the ''Caracazo'': rioting and suppression by the security forces that took hundreds of lives.

Perez faced two coup attempts in 1992, the first of which was led by Chavez, thrusting the then unknown lieutenant-colonel into the national spotlight.

Despite the turbulence of his second term, Perez sought a role for Venezuela in regional politics. He forged warm ties with Jaime Paz Zamora, the former Bolivian president, and sent a plane for Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former Haitian president, when he was ousted in 1991.

Still, resentment at home festered against Perez, culminating in his impeachment and removal from office in 1993 on corruption charges involving a secretive fund used in part to pay for the bodyguards of Violeta Chamorro, the former Nicaraguan president.

Declaring his innocence, he was locked for 10 weeks in a in a prison in one of this city's slums. He was then put under house arrest for two years in his hillside estate.

After Chavez's election to the presidency in 1998, Perez again went into exile, moving to the Dominican Republic, where he faced accusations from officials of conspiring to oust Chavez.

In 2003, Venezuela temporarily cut oil exports to the Dominican Republic, forcing Perez to move to the United States, where he eventually settled with Matos, with whom he had two daughters. From the United States, he faced extradition proceedings in connection with his crackdown during the 1989 riots. Venezuelan prosecutors claimed that security forces used unnecessary force on rioters.

Despite his deteriorating health in recent years, Perez remained a vocal critic of Chavez, describing his government as ''illegitimate''. He chastised the president for what he described as ''unbecoming behaviour'' at a 2007 political summit meeting in Chile, during which King Juan Carlos of Spain publicly told Chavez, ''Why don't you shut up?''

On Sunday, Chavez took note of Perez's death.

''May he rest in peace,'' he said in a televised speech in western Venezuela, according to The Associated Press. ''But with him may the form of politics that he personified rest in peace and leave here forever.'' 

NEW YORK TIMES

CARLOS ANDRES PEREZ

 FORMER VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT

22-10-1922-25-12-2010